China's economic growth slows amid trade war, weak demand

September data shows weaker retail sales and stronger factory output

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China's economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in a year in the third quarter as fragile domestic demand left it heavily reliant on the humming of its exporting factories, stoking concerns about deepening structural imbalances.

While the 4.88 growth rate met expectations and kept China on track to reach its target of roughly 5% this year, the economy's dependence on external demand at a time of mounting trade tensions with Washington raises questions over whether that pace can be sustained.

Beijing may be using the headline resilience in growth as a show of strength in talks between its vice premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Malaysia in coming days and a potential meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea later.

Still, that export strength belies weakness on home turf, where lacklustre demand gives manufacturers no choice but to fight price wars in foreign markets, and compromise on their profitability.

Jeremy Fang, a sales officer at a Chinese aluminium products maker, says his firm lost 20% of revenue as higher sales in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Turkey and the Middle East failed to fully offset an 80%-90% order plunge in the US

Fang said he is learning Spanish to get ahead of his Chinese competitors rushing to non-U.S. markets and is now travelling abroad twice more often than he did last year.