WASHINGTON, D.C.: China's recently released economic data shows that a 5-percent year-on-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth is 'well within reach,' a veteran China watcher said on Friday.

'The Q3 numbers just released do not support the downward economic spiral hypothesis, rather they support the view of a modest recovery from Q2 making 5 percent year-on-year GDP growth well within reach,' Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at Washington D.C.-based think tank the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), told Xinhua via email.