LEAD 1-China's growth drops to a low of almost 30 years

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Reuters) – China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed in the third quarter to 6.0 percent year-on-year, more than a 30-year low in a trade dispute. with the United States which is weighing more and more on the world's second largest economy.

Official data released Friday highlight the prolonged slowdown in the Chinese economy, after GDP growth of 6.2% year on year for April-June, despite the support measures launched since last year by Beijing .

Third quarter performance is at the bottom of Beijing's target of economic growth of 6.0% to 6.5% for the year as a whole.

Analysts polled by Reuters forecast an increase of 6.1% between July and September compared to the previous year.

China's investors and trading partners are closely monitoring the health of the world's second-largest economy, amid prolonged and costly trade disputes between Beijing and Washington, fueling fears of a global recession.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty about the trade deal between the two countries," said Ho Woei Chen, an economist at Singapore-based UOB Bank. "I believe that December 15 tariffs will have a significant impact on China's growth by 2020. The Beijing approach has been fairly measured and focused and will continue to be so."

The Asian stock markets reduced their gains after the publication of this statistic, that of Shanghai going frankly in the red. Its composite index loses 0.59% as it nears closing.

In contrast to disappointing growth in GDP, China's industrial output grew 5.8 percent year-on-year in September, outperforming economists' expectations of 5.0 percent, after rising 4.4 percent in July. (Kevin Yao and Gabriel Crossley, Arthur Connan for French Service, edited by Patrick Vignal)