BEIJING - China's fixed-asset investment continued to slow in the first three quarters of 2015 as the country's GDP growth dropped below 7 percent.

Fixed-asset investment grew 10.3 percent year on year to 39.45 trillion yuan ($6.21 trillion) from Jan to Sept, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday.

The growth was 0.6 percentage point slower than the expansion for the first eight months. The latest figure also marked the slowest pace since 2000.

In the first three quarters, fixed-asset investment in the agricultural sector grew most rapidly, up 27.4 percent, followed by 11.2 percent for the service sector and 8 percent for the industrial sector.

Fixed-asset investment in China's eastern, central and western regions increased 8.6 percent, 14.5 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

Investment by foreign companies in the first nine months continued to dip, down 2.2 percent year on year, compared with a 0.7-percent decrease in the Jan-Aug period.

The NBS calculation counts only projects with investment of at least five million yuan, as well as all property development projects.

China's GDP expanded 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015, lower than 7 percent in the first half of the year.