Economy In China Cools Slightly

Published:2011-10-18    Source:

China’s economy pulled back a bit from its pell-mell pace in the third quarter, the government said on Tuesday, as measures to rein in inflation and head off speculation put a brake on growth.

The National Bureau of Statistics said the gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 9.1 percent in the quarter, down from 9.5 percent in the previous three months, a hair below consensus forecasts. Year-to-date growth averaged 9.4 percent, basically unchanged from the first half of 2011.

Industrial production continued to rise, up 13.8 percent, compared with 13.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. And real estate sales jumped 17.7 percent.

The statistics bureau said in a statement that the economy “generally carried good development weight and kept moving toward the expected direction of macroeconomic control.”