China’s economy grows 6.9% in first quarter of 2017–gov’t

In this Sunday, April 16, 2017 photo, workers prepare to load cables at a building construction site as a propaganda banner reads “The Party Secretary General Xi Jinping” on display at the Central Business District in Beijing. China’s economic growth ticked higher to 6.9 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest figures. The official data released Monday, April 17, 2017, show that the world’s second-biggest economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the January-March period compared with the previous quarter’s 6.8 percent expansion. AP

BEIJING — China’s economy grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2017, government data showed Monday, beating expectations in the latest sign of stabilization in the world’s second-largest economy.

The reading was better than the median analyst expectation of 6.8 percent in an AFP poll.

“The national economy in the first quarter has maintained the momentum of steady and sound development,” the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

It added that “positive changes kept emerging and major indicators performed better than expected”.

The government has trimmed its 2017 GDP growth target to “around 6.5 percent” as the world’s second-largest economy, already expanding at the slowest pace in a quarter-century, faces an array of challenges.

The economy grew 6.7 percent in 2016, its slowest rate since 1990.

Monday’s data also showed China’s industrial output growth rose to 7.6 percent year-on-year in March, beating an estimate of 6.3 by Bloomberg News.

Retail spending grew a forecast-beating 10.9 percent, while fixed-asset investment rose 9.2 percent in the first three months of the year, representing a slight acceleration from February.