China’s economy demonstrated renewed momentum in the third quarter of 2026 (July–September), underpinned by expanding domestic consumption, resilient trade throughput, and aggressive capital inflows into cutting-edge technologies, according to the State Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission.
Offline consumer spending posted steady progress, rising 2.6% year-on-year in Q3—an acceleration of 0.7 percentage points from the second quarter. The upward trajectory sharpened in September, with offline spending climbing 3.1% year-on-year, up 0.5 percentage points from August, marking the third consecutive month of expansion.
Logistics and trade indicators mirrored the domestic rebound. Key Chinese ports recorded significant cargo volume expansion, with outbound and inbound cargo tonnage rising 43.1% and 0.3% year-on-year, respectively, during the third quarter.
On the capital deployment front, policy-driven fiscal tools expanded sharply. The issuance of new special-purpose local government bonds surged 50.2% year-on-year in September, accelerating by 43.6 percentage points compared to August.
Concurrently, approved contract values for next-generation infrastructure—spanning computing networks, data ecosystems, and telecommunications—grew 34.2% year-on-year in Q3, advancing further to 50.4% in September.
Investment into frontier technologies saw remarkable growth. Capital poured into artificial intelligence (AI) and humanoid robotics climbed 184.1% year-on-year in Q3, surging 198.7% in September alone. These inflows are anchoring current economic expansion while driving China’s push toward “new quality productive forces.”
Macro sentiment also crossed into expansionary territory at the end of the quarter. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) returned to growth at 50.1 in September, while the non-manufacturing business activity index stood at 50.2.
With GDP expanding 4.7% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, the Q3 economic data positions China favorably toward its full-year economic growth target of 4.5% to 5.0%.
Source Xinhua
