China's battered economy finally gets some relief as third-quarter growth numbers beat expectations

• China's GDP expanded by a better-than-expected 4.9% last quarter, according to figures released Wednesday.
• That's good news for the world's second-largest economy, which has struggled since Beijing lifted zero-COVID restrictions late last year.

China's beaten-down economy finally got some good news Wednesday, as second-quarter growth came in ahead of forecasters' expectations.

The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 4.9% year-on-year over the three months ending ending September 30, according to official figures. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 4.4% increase.

Beijing will likely be breathing a sigh of relief at the latest data, which suggests the world's second-largest economy is still on track to meet authorities' target of 5% growth for 2023.

JPMorgan, Japanese bank Nomura, and ratings firm Moody's Analytics all upgraded their 2023 growth outlook for China to above 5% after the better-than-expected data.

China has been battling a barrage of issues in recent months, including the looming threat of deflation, soaring youth unemployment, and a seemingly never-ending property-market crisis that's seen big developers including Country Garden and Evergrande lurch toward bankruptcy over the past two years.

Policymakers have responded by rolling out limited measures designed to boost demand – but the interventions have fallen short of the so-called "big bang" stimulus package that investors believe will be necessary to spark a fully-blown revival.

The flagship CSI 300 and Hong Kong Hang Seng each clawed back some of their losses on the better-than-expected report, but still finished Wednesday in the red with investors fretting about rising tensions in the Middle East.