China's third-quarter GDP grew by 3.9 percent compared with a year earlier, official data showed on Monday.

Economic growth between July and September accelerated from the 0.4-percent recorded in the second quarter, beating a forecast from a Reuters poll of 3.4 percent.

The newly-released data has brought the year-to-date GDP growth to 3 percent, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Industrial production showed signs of quicker recovery, with the value-added industrial output rising 4.8 percent year on year in the third quarter, 4.1 percentage point higher than previous quarter.

Retail sales went up 3.5 percent, turning from a yearly decline of 4.6-percent in the second quarter, according to NBS.

During the same period, the urban unemployment rate declined 0.4-percentage point to 5.4 percent, but unemployment among the younger generation, aged between 16 to 24, still stood at 17.9 percent.

In the first three quarters, the country's fixed-asset investment rose 5.9 percent from a year ago, including a 8.6-percent growth in infrastructure investment and 10.1-percent growth in manufacturing investment. Meanwhile, investments in the embattled real estate sector dropped by 8 percent.

Read more: China's consumer inflation up slightly in Sept., factory gate inflation continues to slow