China growth seen at five-year low in Q3: Survey

SHANGHAI, Oct 19 (AFP): China's economic growth in the third quarter fell to its slowest since the depths of the global financial crisis more than five years ago, an AFP survey projects.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) is predicted to have risen 7.2 per cent year-on-year in the July-September period, an AFP poll of 17 economists showed.
The median forecast for the world's second-largest economy, a key driver of global growth, would be the worst since the first quarter of 2009, when growth stagnated at 6.6 per cent.
The government will release the official GDP figure on Tuesday.
The setback would be likely to prompt more stimulus intervention from Beijing, respondents said, which has set a 7.5 per cent target for expansion this year-the pace of growth in the second quarter.
China's economy has been pummelled by a deflating property bubble as well as a government crackdown on corruption and weak demand from Europe.
"Given much weaker growth... Beijing will have to push ahead with more aggressive policies in order to hit the 7.5 per cent GDP growth target in 2014," said a Beijing-based economist for Standard Chartered Bank, Shen Lan.
But the consensus is that China will miss that target, though Premier Li Keqiang has allowed himself an escape clause by qualifying the goal as "around" 7.5 per cent.