It is the slowest quarterly growth in the Chinese economy in seven years, but in line with expectations and China’s own growth targets.
In the final quarter of last year, the economy expanded by 6.8%.
Friday’s figures confirm the slowing trend in the world’s second largest economy.
But there are pockets of growth. Investment in industrial assets and infrastructure registered a surprise jump by 10.7% in the three months to March, when compared to the same period last year.
Consumers also appear to be spending, with retail sales showing a robust 10.5% jump for March.
That fits Beijing’s attempts in recent years to transform China from an export-led economy to a consumer-led one.
To tell the truth China correspondents struggle with this country’s economic statistics because we don’t know how accurate they are and GDP figures are no exception.
Some provinces and companies are said to exaggerate their production figures to push themselves to the top of the pile but there are also those who are thought to under-estimate their performance so they can attract greater central government support.
For this reason there are economists who measure this country’s financial health using electricity consumption figures instead. By this measure the world’s second largest economy would still be growing but perhaps at not at such a rapid clip.
Asia’s economic giant is attempting to make up for a loss in traditional production and exports by shifting to a model much more dominated by services and domestic consumption. It is in the process of sacking millions of workers and looking for somewhere else to place them.
This might be the correct thing to do in the long run - the government would argue that it is working to eventually deliver more sustainable growth - but, in the short term, what it means is more pain to come.