UPDATE 1-Unibail-Rodamco Q3 growth shrugs off slowdown

* Q3 rental income up 7.5 pct to 369.9 mln euros

* Growth from malls in France, Spain and Central Europe

PARIS Oct 26 (Reuters) - Unibail-Rodamco, Europe's biggest real-estate investment trust (REIT), reported a 7.5 percent rise in third-quarter rental growth as its portfolio of European shopping malls shrugged off the economic slowdown.

Unibail is refocusing its portfolio onto its biggest urban shopping centres to up its rental power while selling off smaller assets that it sees as more vulnerable to consumer belt-tightening.

Third-quarter gross rental income rose to 369.9 million euros ($478.33 million), from 344.1 million in the same period a year earlier, the company said.

On a nine-month revenue basis, most of the growth came from its malls in France, Spain and Central Europe, while revenue from Nordic countries and the Netherlands declined.

Unibail, whose tenants include Apple and clothing brand Zara, opened a new shopping centre in the Paris suburb of Levallois earlier this month. In September it opened a mall in Badajoz, Spain, close to the Portuguese border.

The company's portfolio of offices, which has suffered from the slowdown, saw its revenues fall on a nine-month basis.