in Hong Kong and in Beijing
China’s economy grew 4.8 per cent year on year in the third quarter of 2025, keeping the country largely on track to achieve its full-year target, but analysts said further policy support is still needed to maintain this stable trajectory and improve domestic demand.
The closely watched figure for gross domestic product, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, came in just above the 4.76 per cent forecast in a survey of economists by Chinese financial data provider Wind.
This brought China’s economic growth over the first three quarters to 5.2 per cent, according to the bureau. Beijing has set its annual target for GDP growth at “around 5 per cent”.
The numbers were released on the opening day of the hotly anticipated fourth plenum, where President Xi Jinping and the rest of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee are expected to discuss an outline for the 15th five-year plan – a document that will summarise the country’s broad socio-economic goals for the next half-decade.
Meanwhile, the world’s second-largest economy continues to grapple with other challenges to sustained growth, including renewed trade tensions with the United States, weak domestic demand and a persistent slump in the property market.
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster