Pakistan, April 17 -- According to official data, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.3% in the first three months of 2024, compared to a year earlier.
That beat expectations the world's second largest economy could see growth slow to 4.6% in the first quarter.
Last month, Beijing set an ambitious annual growth target for world's second largest economy of "around 5%".
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also showed first quarter retail sales growth, a key gauge of China's consumer confidence, fell to 3.1%.
"You cannot manufacture growth forever so we really need to see households come to the party if China wants to hit that around 5% growth target," Harry Murphy Cruise from Moody's Analytics told the BBC.
In the sa...