Internet search giant Google Inc. on Thursday reported "reasonably strong" growth in sales and profits in the third quarter, indicating that the company passed the economic stress test.

Google said its third quarter results were slightly better than analysts expected thanks to a large reduction in expenses.

The news prompted Google's stock to jump 8 percent in after hours trading after closing at US$353.02.

"We had a good third quarter with strong traffic and revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

"While we are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, we will continue to manage Google for the long term," he said.

Google's third-quarter revenues increased 31 percent to US$5.54 billion compared to the same quarter one year ago. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, Google's revenues were US$4 billion.

Google's net income was US$1.35 billion or US$4.28 per share, up 26 percent from the same period a year ago. Excluding options expenses, earnings per share was US$4.92, 19 cents more than analysts had expected.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2008)