China's financial sector grows stronger

BEIJING - The output of the financial sector jumped 16.1 percent year on year to 1.41 trillion yuan ($221.8 billion) in the third quarter, well above the national GDP growth of 6.9 percent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The overall tertiary industry, including financial and other service sectors, expanded 8.6 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the NBS figures showed.

The primary industry grew only 4.1 percent, while the secondary industry grew 5.8 percent.

While China's economy continued to lose steam, the benchmark stock market index still hovers at a level more than 40 percent higher than the previous year, though market turmoil since June has subdued investment.

China has put more emphasis on promoting growth in services and domestic consumption in the process of deepening structural reforms.

In the first three quarters, the value added of the tertiary industry accounted for 51.4 percent of GDP, up 2.3 percentage points from the same period last year, official data show.