China’s GDP grows by 7.7% in Q1

China's GDP grew by 7.7 percent in the first quarter, signalling generally stable economic growth at the start of this year. The economic data was unveiled on Monday by the spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics.

GDP in the first quarter was 0.2 percentage points lower than the 7.9 percent growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2012. But it was still above the 7.5-percent full-year target. The CPI, the main gauge of inflation, grew by 2.4 percent in the first quarter, compared with that in the last quarter. That's 1.4 percentage points lower than the same period last year and 0.2 percent points lower than the 2.2 percent for the whole of last year.

China's foreign trade - exports and imports combined - increased 13.4 percent year on year to 974.67 billion US dollars in the first three months of 2013, faster than the government's 8 percent goal set for the entire year. China's Commerce Ministry has pledged to unveil fresh measures this year to boost imports. Meanwhile, the government says China still needs to concentrate on the quality of economic growth and restructuring while maintaining short-term economic growth.