China's economic growth slowed for a seventh quarter while showing signs of a pickup last month, reducing the urgency to add stimulus and offering support for a global expansion buffeted by Europe's debt turmoil.

Gross domestic product expanded 7.4 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing today. That matches the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 43 economists and compares with a previously reported 7.6 percent expansion in the second quarter. Industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment accelerated in September.

Any rebound in growth may ease pressure on the Communist Party as officials begin a once-a-decade leadership transition next month. The government has paused for three months from easing monetary policy in the world's second-biggest economy even as data showed trade, manufacturing and inflation cooled during the quarter.