Beijing, Oct 22 (IANS) The Chinese economy expanded 8.9 percent year on year in the third quarter of this year, and 7.7 percent year on year in the first nine months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said here Thursday.

The growth rates for the first quarter and second quarter were 6.1 percent and 7.9 percent respectively, Xinhua reported Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, NBS spokesman Li Xiaochao said that China's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 21.78 trillion yuan (about $3.18 trillion) in the first nine months.

A basket of policies adopted by the Chinese government to fight the global financial crisis has produced significant results and the Chinese economy is on a "consolidated" growth recovery, he said.

"Currently, the Chinese economy is in a critical period of stabilisation and moving upward. The basis for a full economic recovery needs to be consolidated. Overseas demand is still weak and it is still a tough task (for China) to expand domestic and adjust the economic structure," Li said.

He added that in the following months, China will maintain the continuity and stability of the macro economic policies, stick to the proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy and fully implement the basket of policies and plans adopted earlier by the central government.

On Wednesday, the State Council, China's cabinet, said in a statement that the country's economic and social development was better than expected.

A key point of China's macro-regulation in the coming months this year would be to balance the tasks of ensuring a stable and relatively fast economic growth, adjusting economic structure and regulating inflation prospects, said the statement.

The spokesman also said China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, dipped 1.1 percent year on year in the first nine months of this year.

The September CPI was up 0.4 percent over the previous month. But the NBS did not provide the reading of September CPI on an annual basis.

CPI declined 1.2 percent in August from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive month of decline since the index dropped 1.6 percent in February, the first fall since October 2002.

The producer price index (PPI), a major measurement of inflation at the wholesale level, dropped 6.5 percent year on year in the first three quarters of this year, Li said. The September PPI rose 0.6 percent from a month earlier.

Industrial output rose 12.4 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, he said. The figure increased 8.7 percent year on year in the first nine months.

Retail sales in the first nine months rose 15.1 percent year ony ear to 8.97 trillion yuan ($1.31 trillion).