Official figures indicate that gross domestic product in China was 6.8 percent greater in the third quarter of this year than a year earlier, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese state-run news agency, citing data published by the National Bureau of Statistics, says the annual rate of expansion was slower in the third quarter than in the second.

The report quotes a spokesman for the bureau, Xing Zhihong, as telling a news conference: “The Chinese economy has maintained steady growth.”

The annual rate of GDP growth was 6.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.9 percent in the first.

Mr Xing said new engines of economic growth were building up steam.

The expansion in the first three quarters has prepared the way for the rate economic growth to hit the official target of 6.5 percent set for this year, Xinhua quotes the spokesman as saying.