China's economy grew by 8.5 percent in the first three quarters this year, with an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared with the same period of last year, said Qiu Xiaohua, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Friday.

At a press conference, Qiu said the gross domestic product (GDP) of the first three quarters totaled more than 7.9 trillion yuan (about US$956.6 billion).

The GDP of the third quarter this year increased by 9.1 percent, 2.4 percentage points more than that of the second quarter, indicating that the economy has cast off the impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and resumed fast growth.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2003)