The latest figures from China have shown the country’s economy to have grown 4.9% between July and September.

It is the second consecutive quarter of growth and whilst it is lower than analyst expectations of 5.2%, the figures suggest economic recovery from the pandemic.

In the first three months of the year, China’s economy fell by 6.8% when the country closed factories and manufacturing plants.

The chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, Michael Hewson, said: “While Europe appears to be battling a slowing economy, and the prospect of a surging second wave, the Chinese economy finally appears to be gaining traction, after months of sub-par consumer spending.

“This outperformance raised expectations that retail sales in September would finally start to show signs of life after months of weak readings.

“The performance of the Chinese consumer hasn’t been the same since the country came out of lockdown at the end of February, though optimism in the summer started to improve as a result of positive data from the auto sector, with reports from the likes of Daimler, as well as Apple talking of some decent rebounds in their Chinese markets,” added Hewson.

Compared to the same period a year ago, the industrial sector grew by 5.8%, the service sector was up by 4.3%, and the retil sector grew by 0.9%.

Liu Aihua, a spokeswoman for China’s National Bureau of Statistics, commented: “So far we can say consumption has already climbed out from the pandemic’s deep shock. The recovery is underway.”

China’s Shanghai Composite rose slightly before the announcement, however, it fell 0.3% lower afterwards.