China's Q1 GDP grows 5.0pc year on year, tops market forecast

China's economy grew 5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on Thursday, beating analysts' expectations as policymakers brace for the fallout from the Iran war.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the January-March quarter gross domestic product (GDP) would expand 4.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with a three-year low of 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

On a quarterly basis, GDP grew 1.3 percent in the first quarter, matching forecasts and just ahead of the 1.2 percent gain in the previous quarter.

Risks to the world's second-largest economy have surged since the Middle East war erupted on February 28. The conflict has laid bare a critical vulnerability: as the world's biggest energy importer and a heavily export-driven economy, China is acutely exposed to an oil shock that is already slowing trade, driving up factory costs and clouding the outlook for the year.

Reuters