BEIJING — China turned to a tried-and-true recipe to cook up another three months of respectable growth.

Heavy lending by state-owned banks, brisk government spending and strong exports helped keep China’s economy growing briskly and steadily. China’s statistical agency said on Thursday that the economy had grown 6.8 percent in the July-to-September period, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

President Xi Jinping had put heavy pressure on practically every government ministry to make sure that the economy put in a solid performance. The Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress began this week, and it’s a time when the country’s leaders want predictability and an image of strength.

The figure announced on Thursday was similar to other results from recent quarters, a trend that makes many economists doubt the reliability of China’s headline economic numbers. Still other figures — including retail spending, housing sales and trade figures — suggest an economy growing steadily under the guiding hand of the government.