China's economic growth rate has slipped into single digits for the first time since late 2005, as the global financial crisis begins to have an effect on the world's fourth largest economy.

According to government figures released on Monday, growth in the first nine months of the year was 9.9 per cent over a year earlier, compared to 11.9 per cent for the whole of 2007.

Growth for July to September slowed to nine per cent, the lowest since the second quarter of 2003 when the outbreak of the Sars virus saw Chinese economic growth plummet to 6.7 per cent.

"The growth rate of the world economy has slowed down noticeably," Li Xiaochao, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said during a news conference in Beijing called to release the latest data.

"There are more uncertain and volatile factors in the international economic climate," he added, noting that "all these factors have started to release their negative impact on China's economy".

"It's very obvious now that economic growth is slowing quickly, although some indicators such as exports are holding up due to lagging effects," Zhang Fan, an economist at Tebon Securities in Shanghai, told the AFP news agency.

Reacting to the latest data, shares on the benchmark Shanghai composite index slid 0.7 per cent in Monday morning's trade.

Although the latest growth rates are still robust compared to other major economies, the latest economic data has raised speculation that the government will introduce new measures to counter the slowdown.

China's leaders need to keep growth high to avoid political tensions [GALLO/GETTY]

At the weekend a meeting of China's state council, or cabinet, saw senior leaders outline measures to ease lending and stabilise volatile financial markets.

"Financial, credit and foreign trade measures will be carried out in the near future in response to the slowing trend of the country's economic growth,'' the official Xinhua news agency said in a report late on Sunday.

Among measures expected are fresh tax cuts, stepped-up investment in infrastructure such as railways, and an easing of curbs on the real-estate market which is already being eased in some cities.

In other economic data released on Monday, China's politically sensitive inflation rate slowed in September to a 15-month low of 4.6 per cent, officials said.

The figure compares with a 12-year high of 8.7 per cent in February this year.

The inflation slowdown, thanks largely to moderating food costs, could free China's leaders to do more to help spur growth after trying to rein in bank lending and other factors blamed for pushing prices higher in recent years.