Growth in China’s consumer spending continued to cool in September as the country’s third-quarter growth was the slowest since the global financial crisis.

The country’s retail sales rose 11.6 percent from one year earlier in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Oct 21. The pace of growth has declined for four months in a row.

In the first nine months of the year, retail sales rose 12 percent year-on-year to 18.92 trillion yuan ($3.08 trillion).

The bureau said online retail sales surged 49.9 percent from one year earlier to 1.82 trillion yuan during the period.

It also said the per-capita average disposable income in the country reached 14,986 yuan in the January-September period, up 10.5 percent year-on-year, or an increase of 8.2 percent in real terms after deducting price factors.