China's gross domestic product grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter after a 6.3 percent rise in the second quarter, posting a steady recovery despite downward pressures, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

In the first three quarters, China's GDP grew by 5.2 percent to 91.3 trillion yuan ($12.5 trillion) after a 5.5 percent growth in the first half of the year, the bureau said. Figures released by the NBS showed China's value-added industrial output - a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors - grew by 4.5 percent in September from a year earlier, flat with the figure in August.

In the first three quarters, value-added industrial output grew by 4 percent compared to the same period last year, while, in the first half of the year, it rose by 3.8 percent from a year earlier.