China's GDP growth hits 6.7% in first three quarters in 2018

China's GDP growth reached 6.7 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, according to official data released on Friday.

Growth in the third quarter was 6.5 percent, down from 6.8 percent in the first quarter and 6.7 percent in the second quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Retail sales increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, down from 9.4 percent in the first two quarters combined, the data showed.

The industrial output growth was 6.4 percent year-on-year in the January-September period, 0.3 percentage point lower than the first half of this year, the data showed.

Fixed-asset investment growth was 5.4 percent in the first three quarters of this year, 0.6 percentage point lower than the first two quarters as a whole but 0.1 percentage point higher than in the first eight months.

Despite the easing in growth, surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 4.9 percent in September, down from 5 percent a year before.

Mao Shengyong, spokesman of the bureau, said the data showed that the country's economic growth remained on track but faces heavier downward pressure.