BEIJING, Oct 18 - Reuters - China's economy grew in the third quarter at the slowest pace in a year and was hurt by power shortages, supply bottlenecks and sporadic COVID - 19 outbreaks and raising heat on policymakers amid rising jitters over the property sector.
Data released on Monday showed gross domestic product GDP grew 4.9% from a earlier, slowing the pace since the third quarter of 2020 and in the second quarter from 7.9% to 4.9%.
That marked a further deceleration from the 18.3% expansion in the first quarter, when the year-on-year growth rate was heavily flattered by the very low comparison seen during COVID-induced slump of early 2020.
The domestic economic recovery is still uneven and unstable, said Fu Linghui, NBS spokesperson, at a briefing in Beijing on Monday.
A Reuters poll of analysts had expected GDP to rise 5.2% in the third quarter.
An increasing growth rate was recorded in July-September on a quarterly basis, easing from downwardly revised 1.2% data for the second quarter.
The world’s second largest economy has rebounded from the pandemic, but the recovery is losing steam, weighed by slowing factory activity, persistently soft consumption and a weaking property sector as policy curbs bite.
In response to the ugly growth numbers we anticipate in coming months, we think policymakers will take more steps to shore up growth, including ensuring ample liquidity in the interbank market, accelerating infrastructure development and relaxing some aspects of overall credit and real estate policies, said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.
Global worries about a possible spillover of credit risk from China's property sector into the broader economy have also intensified, as major developer China Evergrande Group wrestles with more than $300 billion of debt.
Chinese leaders, fearful that a persistent property bubble would undermine the country's long term ascent, are likely to maintain tough curbs on the sector even as the economy slows, but could soften some tactics as needed, policy sources and analysts said.
Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday that China has ample tools to deal with economic challenges despite slowing growth, and the government is confident of meeting full-year development goals.
China's economy is expected to grow 8% this year, central bank governor Yi Gang said on Sunday.
Analysts polled by Reuters expected PBOC to reduce banks' reserve requirement ratio RRR in the first quarter, before removing another 50 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2022.
September industrial output rose 3.1% from a year earlier, exceeding expectations, down to August's 5.3% and marking the slowest growth since March 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic.
But consumption showed signs of an improvement with retail sales increasing in September by 4.4%, faster than 2,5% in August.