China's third quarter GDP growth hits 7.8 percent BEIJING, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- China said its gross domestic product grew 7.8 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier, as the economy picked up steam July through September. Second quarter growth was 7.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The government's goal for the year is 7.5 percent growth and the third quarter performance all but locks that in. China's economy grew 7.7 percent in the first quarter, The New York Times reported Friday. "Economic activity has been relatively stable, with the main indicators within bounds of forecast targets," said bureau spokesman Sheng Laiyun in Beijing at a televised news conference. "Indicators for investment, consumption and exports all showed some uptick," Sheng said. Sheng said that half the growth in the third quarter was the result of investments, a point that leaves room for concern that the government is propping up too much of the growth, the Times reported. China has long relied on infrastructure projects to push growth. Currently, the government is also concerned with creating domestic demand for goods so the country can rely less on exports, CNNMoney.com reported. "If anything, some of that growth we had in the third quarter was on the domestic side coming from support from policy stimulus," Louis Kuijs, the chief China economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland told the Times. "It was good old-fashioned policy stimulus with credit leading to more investment," said Kuijs, who predicted slow, steady growth, "not like a very sharp recovery, but enough compared to their bottom line."