Shanghai and Beijing posted the slowest economic growth in the first three quarters of this year among China's 25 provincial areas which have released their economic data due to the two cities' [Hong Kong company registration]greater efforts on economic restructuring, analysts said.

The gross domestic product of the two cities grew 7.7 percent from a year earlier in the first nine months, according to their statistics bureaus, putting them at the bottom of the growth rates among the country's 25 provincial areas which have released the data. But the two cities' growth rate was the same as the national level.

With a growth rate of 12.6 percent in the January-September period, Tianjin, a municipality in north China, topped the list. It was followed by Chongqing, whose economy expanded 12.4 percent.

Yan Jun, chief economist at the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, said earlier that the city's economy would maintain a stable growth momentum this year. Shanghai targets an economic growth rate of 7.5 percent this year.

Shanghai aims a further shift to "growth quality" by accelerating industrial restructuring, further raising people's income and enhancing efforts to combat pollution, Mayor Yang Xiong [Set Up Company Hong Kong]said earlier.

China's economic output totaled 38.6 trillion yuan (US$6.3 trillion) in the first nine months while the calculated output of the 25 provinces and municipalities amounted to 39.9 trillion yuan, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of School [Hong Kong Company Formation]of Finance at Renmin University of China, said the contradictory data are probably a result of overlapping calculations, which is a lasting problem in China.