Sheng Laiyun (R Back), spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), speaks during a press conference on national economic statistics of the first three quarters held in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 18, 2011. According to preliminary statistics released by NBS at the press conference, China`s GDP reached 32.07 trillion yuan (5.01 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months, up 9.4 percent year-on-year. (Xinhua/Wang Yongji)

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China`s GDP expanded 9.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of the year, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2009.

The growth rate was down from 9.5 percent in the second quarter of this year and 9.7 percent in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The country`s economy expanded 2.3 percent in the July-September period on a quarterly basis, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference.

According to preliminary statistics, the country`s GDP reached 32.07 trillion yuan (5.01 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, Sheng said.

He noted the country`s economic performance was "generally good" and had developed according to the macro-economic regulation in the first nine months.

Despite the challenges and uncertainties both at home and abroad, there was great chance that China`s economy would maintain its stable and relatively fast growth in the coming period, boosted by a strong growth momentum, Sheng said.

He said there was an obvious trend that the country`s economic development was shifting from a stimulus policy-driven growth to a self-initiated mode.

Industrial value-added output rose 13.8 percent year-on-year in September, up from the 13.5 percent annual growth in August. Fixed asset investment rose 24.9 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, compared with a 25-percent gain in the January-August period.

In September, the country`s retail sales grew 17.7 percent from a year earlier after a 17-percent increase in August.

Sheng said the country`s consumer price increase had been "preliminarily contained" as growth of the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, has been declining for two consecutive months.

The government made curbing consumer prices a top priority in this year`s marco economic regulation and vowed to keep the annual growth of CPI at around 4 percent this year.

To mop up excessive liquidity that helps fuel inflation, the government implemented a prudent monetary policy this year. The central bank has raised the benchmark interest rates three times this year and hiked the reserve requirement ratio for commercial banks six times.