China's economic recovery unexpectedly stumbled in the first three months of 2013 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 per cent from the 7.9 per cent pace set in the final quarter of last year, official data showed on Monday.
The growth rate, announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, was weaker than a Reuters poll consensus forecast for an 8.0 per cent expansion.
Many investors had anticipated a possible surprise on the upside, with growth faster than the consensus, after a surge in liquidity in the economy during the first quarter and an uptick in export growth.
The liquidity and export data had encouraged expectations that growth would accelerate again in the first quarter, after snapping seven straight quarters of weakening expansion in the previous quarter thanks to policy action to put momentum back in the economy.
"This number may well explain why there was so much liquidity support in Q1," said Tim Condon, head of Asian economic research at ING in Singapore.
"Industrial production is unexpectedly weak and that's the source of weakness in GDP. Based on this, the consensus GDP forecasts are going to be headed lower and we'll certainly be looking at ours."
Despite the slower growth, China's real estate investment rose 20.2 per cent in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier, while revenues from property sales rose 61.3