China Q1 GDP growth accelerates on investment, production
Staff Writer | April 17, 2017China's economic growth strengthened unexpectedly in the first quarter, driven by investment, exports and domestic demand, official data showed.

Asia Gross domestic product in China expanded 6.9%
This was the fastest expansion since the third quarter of 2015. The annual growth was expected to stabilize at 6.8%.
The government targets slightly slower growth of about 6.5% this year after attaining 6.7% growth in 2016. The 6.7% expansion was the weakest in 26 years.
Quarter-on-quarter, GDP gained 1.3% in the first three months of 2017.
Industrial production growth accelerated notably to 7.6% in March versus 6.3% in the first two months of this year, marking the fastest pace since 2014. Production was expected to gain 6.3%.
Retail sales growth was a double-digit 10.9% in March after easing to 9.5% in the January to February period. Economists had forecast the rate to improve to 9.7%.
Industrial output grew 6.8% and retail sales climbed 10% from the previous year in the first quarter.
In the first quarter, fixed asset investment grew 9.2% from the prior year, faster than the 8.9% expansion seen in the January to February period. The annual growth was forecast to ease to 8.8%. ■