China on Friday said its economy continued to slow down in the first quarter this year, declining to 6.7 per cent but in line with Government targets amid claims by officials that several key indicators showed signs of stabilisation in the world's second largest economy. The country's GDP grew 6.7 per cent year-on-year to reach 15.9 trillion yuan ($2.4 trillion), data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
The growth further narrowed from the previous quarter's 6.8 per cent, which was already the lowest quarterly rate in seven years. Chinese economy logged 6.9 per cent last year the lowest in over two-and-a-half decades. Officials however say that Q1 growth of 6.7 per cent was in line with market expectations and remained within the Government’s targeted range between 6.5 and 7 per cent for 2016.
New growth momentum is gathering and some major indicators have seen positive changes, NBS spokesperson Sheng laiyun said at a press conference, calling the first-quarter performance ‘a good start’ to this year. The retail sales of consumer goods increased 10.3 per cent in the first quarter year-on-year which points to increase in consumer demand as China tried to reset its export-led economy to one based on services and consumption to halt the slowdown.
In March, retail sales were up 10.5 per cent year-on-year, faster than the growth rate in the first two months this year. The value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 5.8 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, accelerating from the 5.4 per cent increase for the January-February period as per NBS data.