HONG KONG — China's economy grew 6.9 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, as a deepening industrial rout and slumping stock market pushed growth to its slowest quarterly pace since the global financial crisis of 2009.
The weak result in the July-to-September period compares with growth of 7 percent in each of the first two quarters of the year, but was slightly better than the 6.8 percent rate that economists had forecast. The government's official target for the year is growth of around 7 percent.
"China was facing increasing downward pressure of domestic economic development" in the first nine months of the year, the official statistics agency said in a statement accompanying the data released Monday morning in Beijing. Still, it added, "the overall performance of national economy was stable and moving in a positive direction."
Uncertainties over China's decelerating growth have shaken global stock markets in recent months as investors have raised doubts about the quality of Chinese economic data and the transparency of the country's policy decision-making process. Concerns have been heightened by China's botched attempt to prop up its stock markets in July and the surprise move in August to devalue its currency, the renminbi, by the most in nearly two decades.
In addition to triggering increased volatility on stock markets around the world, questions over China's development have affected global monetary policy. Janet L. Yellen, the chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, cited uncertainty over China as a reason for delaying raising interest rates after the Fed's meeting last month.
China is struggling with an industrial slump that in recent months has appeared to be worse than the country's leaders had anticipated. The country's traditional growth drivers — manufacturing and housing construction — have recently become among the biggest drags on its economy, the world's second largest after the United States.
In response, China's central bank has cut interest rates five times since last November, and has taken other steps to free banks to lend more. The government has also pledged to spend hundreds of billions of dollars this year on new infrastructure projects, including rail lines and water treatment plants, to help lift growth.
To offset the industrial slowdown, China is relying on a rise in consumer demand driven through ongoing urbanization and a growing middle class. Evidence of this emerging economic driver can be seen in recent months in double-digit growth rates in areas like box office revenues and online merchandise sales. But so far, rising spending by Chinese consumers has failed to offset the slump in the economy's traditional industrial engine.