China's gross domestic product (GDP) registered a year-on-year increase of 9.7 percent reaching 9.631 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2011, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday morning.

The growth rate was 2.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year, said Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman for the NBS, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Sheng also released other first quarter economic figures at the press conference.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent in March compared with March of last year. The figure was 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous month's annualized growth rate of 4.9%, and the CPI figure for the first quarter was up 5.0 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2010.

The producer price index (PPI), another measure of inflation at the wholesale level, registered a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent in March. The PPI also increased by 7.1 percent over the first quarter from the same period a year earlier.

The fixed-asset investment in the first quarter expanded 25.0 percent from a year earlier to 3.946 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

Specifically, real estate investment registered a year-on-year first quarter increase of 34.1 percent reaching 884.6 billion yuan.

China's retail sales in the first quarter rose 16.3 percent from the previous year earlier reaching 4.292 trillion yuan.

Links and Sources
NBS: 一季度國民經(jīng)濟保持平穩(wěn)較快增長
SCIO:China's GDP Grew 11.9% in the First Quarter
PBC: 2011年一季度金融統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)報告
Economic Observer Online: China's GDP Grew 11.9% in the First Quarter

Image: