BEIJING, Oct. 19 -- China's statistics bureau reported a third quarter that beat the second, then listed in the same release the places where the money is not going. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday that gross domestic product grew 4.5 percent year on year in July to September, up from 4.3 percent in the second quarter, while fixed-asset investment was down 7.2 percent over the first nine months.

Growth for January to September stands at 4.6 percent, inside the 2026 target of 4.5 to 5 percent that Xinhua reported in May. By TEH's equal-weight arithmetic of the four quarters (5.0, 4.3, 4.5 and one to come), a fourth quarter near 4.2 percent would still average 4.5 percent, the floor of that range. Quarters are not eq...