BEIJING -- China's trust assets scale dropped quarter on quarter in the third quarter (Q3) of 2015, the first quarterly decline in five years, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

Trust assets totalled 15.62 trillion yuan ($2.45 trillion) by the end of Q3, falling 1.58 percent compared with Q2 and the first quarterly drop since Q1 of 2010, showed the data from the China Trustee Association.

The sector's business revenue also declined 24 percent quarter on quarter to 15.69 billion yuan in Q3.

Zhai Lihong, a researcher with Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, attributed the drops to contracting financing demands due to downward economic pressure, increased market competition and risk control as well as recent stock market fluctuations.