wChina's GDP grew 11.9% in the first quarter of 2010 from a year earlier
Fears that China’s economy is at serious risk of overheating deepened on Thursday after official data for the first three months of this year showed the economy grew by 11.9pc year-on-year.
China's GDP (gross domestic product) grew 11.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 from a year earlier. The increase is 5.7 percentage points higher than the same period in 2009 when economic growth slowed to 6.2 per cent, the lowest in a decade.
"With the implementation of the stimulus package to combat the global financial crisis, the Chinese economy achieved a good start this year as the recovery momentum continues to consolidate, laying a solid foundation to meet the annual economic target," National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesman Li Xiaochao said. "The 11.9 per cent growth in the first quarter is largely a result of last year's low comparison base, and the government's stimulus," Li added.
China's retail sales rose 17.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter, the NBS also reported. Boosted by a series of government measures, sales of cars, furniture and home appliances and audio visual equipment jumped 39.8 per cent, 37.6 per cent and 29.6 per cent, respectively; consumer prices rose 2.4 per cent in March from a year earlier, compared with 2.7 per cent in February and China's industrial output increased 19.6 per cent year on year in the first quarter - - a 14.5 percentage points rise from the same period last year. In March, the increase was 18.1 per cent year on year; exports jumped 29 per cent in the first quarter.