CHINA’S economic growth in the third quarter is expected to fall to its slowest since the depths of the global financial crisis more than five years ago, an AFP survey said.

    The country’s GDP is predicted to have risen 7.2 percent year on year in the July-September period, an AFP poll of 17 economists showed. It would be the worst since the first quarter of 2009, when growth stagnated at 6.6 percent.

    The government will release the official GDP figure today.

    The setback would be likely to prompt more stimulus intervention from the government, respondents said, which has set a 7.5 percent target for expansion this year — the pace of growth in the second quarter.

    China’s economy has been pummelled by a deflating property bubble as well as a government crackdown on corruption and weak demand from Europe.

    “Given much weaker growth... the government will have to push ahead with more aggressive policies in order to hit the 7.5 percent GDP growth target in 2014,” said a Beijing-based economist for Standard Chartered Bank, Shen Lan.(SD-Agencies)