Xinhua Headlines: China's economy shows stable growth trend with positive factors accumulating

BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's economy demonstrated stable growth, with GDP expanding 5.2 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2025, as positive factors accumulated despite global headwinds, official data showed on Monday.

China's GDP reached over 101.5 trillion yuan (about 14.3 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed.

In the third quarter, the country's GDP expanded 4.8 percent year on year.

The tertiary industry expanded 5.4 percent year on year in the first three quarters, outpacing a 3.8 percent increase of the primary industry and a 4.9 percent increase of the second industry.

On a quarterly basis, China's economy expanded 1.1 percent in the third quarter, according to the NBS.

Since the beginning of the year, China's economic development has withstood pressure and achieved hard-won, remarkable progress, said a spokesperson with the NBS, adding that economic operation has maintained overall stable performance with steady growth.

In the first nine months of this year, China's value-added industrial output increased by 6.2 percent compared to the same period last year. In September, the output expanded 6.5 percent year on year, with manufacturing and mining sectors posting rapid growth.

China's value-added service output rose to nearly 59.3 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, accounting for 58.4 percent of GDP, 0.8 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year.

China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 4.5 percent year on year to nearly 36.59 trillion yuan in the first three quarters. In September, the retail sales of consumer goods rose 3 percent year on year to 4.2 trillion yuan.

The country's per capita disposable income reached 32,509 yuan during the January-September period, marking a 5.2 percent year-on-year increase after deducting price factors.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate on average in China stood at 5.2 percent in the first three quarters. The rate went down 0.1 percentage point from August to 5.2 percent in September.

China's fixed-asset investment dropped 0.5 percent year on year to about 37.2 trillion yuan in the first three quarters.

China's GDP growth in the third quarter moderated by 0.4 percentage points compared with the second quarter, primarily due to a complex external environment and domestic structural adjustment pressures, the NBS spokesperson said. Despite this, the economy maintained overall stability, with third-quarter growth continuing to outpace most major economies.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, China's GDP rose from 103.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 134.9 trillion yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 5.5 percent, significantly higher than the global average of 3.9 percent over the same period.

Throughout this period, China contributed approximately 30 percent annually to global economic growth, making it the most important driver of world economic development and fully demonstrating the resilience and vitality of a major economy, the spokesperson said.

Economist Pan Helin noted in an interview with Xinhua that China's economic resilience stems from both its vast scale and innovation-driven high-quality development, which effectively offset pressures through qualitative improvements.

Pan projected that technological innovation and R&D investment will become primary growth drivers in the next five years, alongside a shift from manufacturing-focused growth to a more balanced model integrating manufacturing and services, with the latter emerging as an important source of growth. ■