China’s economy grew at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis in the third quarter, as growth in services failed to make up for weakness in manufacturing and property.

China's statistics bureau said on Monday that gross domestic product rose by 6.9 per cent in the third quarter in inflation-adjusted terms, down from 7 per cent in the first two quarters and 7.3 per cent in the same period in 2014. It was the slowest quarterly growth rate since the first quarter of 2009 but higher than expectations of 6.7 per cent in a Bloomberg poll.

Monday’s figure suggests that China may struggle to meet the full-year growth target of “around 7 per cent” that Premier Li Keqiang announced in March. The National Bureau of Statistics said last month that growth as low as 6.5 per cent would be within the target range.