China’s growth rises to 4.5% as AI hardware demand helps lift exports

China’s economy grew 4.5% from a year earlier in the third quarter, accelerating from 4.3% in the previous quarter. Global demand for chips and other AI data-center components helped support exports, the BBC reported. That external demand is cushioning weak spending at home, rather than marking an end to the country’s domestic economic troubles.

The figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Monday show a recovery from the previous quarter’s three-year growth low. But the pace remained below the 5% expansion recorded between January and March. The improvement therefore reverses part of the slowdown earlier in the year, without restoring the first quarter’s growth rate.

The third-quarter result sits at the bottom of Beijing’s annual growth target of 4.5%–5%. Analysts cited by the BBC said that target gives policymakers room to address the country’s economic challenges. The statistics bureau offered a positive assessment, describing steady development under pressure and momentum from new growth drivers.

Overseas orders provide a cushion

The technology industry has been an important source of growth in recent quarters. The BBC identified global purchases of computer chips and other components for AI data centers as one source of support for Chinese exports. The connection runs through demand for the equipment needed to build AI infrastructure, not just sales of AI software or services.

That identifies a channel of support, rather than a measured contribution to the headline growth rate. The BBC did not quantify how much of the 4.5% expansion came from AI-related demand. Its account places that demand within a wider export sector that has helped compensate for sluggish domestic consumption.

The strength of overseas sales is also visible in China’s trade balance. Its surplus—the excess of what it sells abroad over what it buys—is on course to surpass last year’s record $1.2 trillion, according to the BBC. That forecast concerns the overall surplus, not AI-related shipments alone.

Property and households tell a weaker story

At home, property investment fell by more than 20% in the first nine months compared with a year earlier, official figures showed. The long-running downturn follows years of overbuilding and excessive borrowing by private developers. It remains a substantial source of weakness alongside the stronger export performance.

Weak wage growth and high youth unemployment have also weighed on consumer spending, helping push businesses toward overseas customers. Beijing responded in September with support measures that included lower interest rates for some businesses and subsidies for property buyers. Those measures targeted domestic strains that export growth has helped cushion.

Two pressures on the export support

The export-led cushion faces resistance abroad. The United States and European Union are pushing back as manufacturers struggle to compete with large volumes of inexpensive Chinese goods. Those trade tensions cloud the outlook for an economy whose businesses have leaned heavily on foreign demand.

AI spending presents a different uncertainty. The BBC highlighted concerns about whether companies investing billions of dollars in AI infrastructure can deliver the large profits they promise. For China’s component exporters, the investment boom is supporting demand now; whether its buyers earn enough from that buildout remains an unresolved part of the outlook.