China reports 4.6% growth in third quarter as government tries to boost struggling economy

China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Friday reported third-quarter GDP growth of 4.6% year on year, slightly exceeding the 4.5% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

That’s less than the second-quarter growth of 4.7% year on year. On a quarterly basis, the third quarter saw 0.9% expansion, compared with 0.7% in the second quarter.

“The national economy showed positive signs of growth in September,” Sheng Laiyun, the bureau’s deputy commissioner, said at the news conference, according to CNBC’s translation of the Chinese.

Other data also released on Friday, such as retail sales and industrial production, also beat expectations, a hopeful sign for the world’s second-largest economy.

Beijing has faced growing public scrutiny over its ability to meet its own annual growth target of “around 5%.”

“Since real GDP expanded by 4.8% in the first three quarters of the year, the full-year GDP growth target of around 5% is now within reach with extra stimulus in Q4,” said Tianchen Xu, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“Despite the multitude of challenges, China’s economy is not incurable as some would suggest,” Xu added. “There’s reason to be more optimistic about growth in the coming years, given how the government is committed to shoring up the economy.”

After the release of a slew of disappointing economic data, Chinese officials last month announced a slate of support measures to jumpstart the economy, including cutting the amount of cash that banks needs to have on hand by 50 basis points.

Authorities continued to dip feed more stimulus measures throughout this month amid low consumer sentiment and a flagging property sector. Over the weekend, China’s Minister of Finance Lan told reporters that the central government has room to increase debt and the deficit, without giving any details on the size of the package.

In the latest round, China’s Housing Ministry on Thursday announced it would expand its “whitelist” of real estate projects and speed up bank lending for these unfinished developments to 4 trillion yuan ($561.8 billion) by the end of the year.