China released a raft of economic data Friday morning, but the headline figure was 6%. That’s the rate of GDP growth in the third quarter as compared to the same period last year, and it’s lower than the 6.1% growth analysts polled by Reuters had anticipated. In fact, it’s China’s lowest quarterly economic growth since records began 27 years ago in 1992.
However, the data wasn’t all bad, a result that Beijing touted in its announcement of the numbers. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s industrial output rose 5.8% in September, up from a 17-year low in August, and retail sales jumped 7.8% year-on-year last month, too.
