The Chinese economy grew at its slowest pace in the last six years as its gross domestic product expanded at seven percent year on year, official data has revealed.
The figure although outdid market predictions made by several institutions earlier, who had expected the first quarter growth to fall slightly below seven percent, but it also indicated a continued downward pressure for the world's second largest economy, reported China Daily.
China had registered an economic growth of 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
On a quarterly basis, China's economic growth slowed down to 1.3 percent between January and March, as opposed to 1.5 percent in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Analysts had expected a quarterly growth of 1.4 percent.
The numbers however, supported analysts' forecasts for China's economic growth to dip to seven percent this year, the lowest in a quarter of a century.