The Chinese economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter and inflation rose to its highest level in almost three years despite months of government attempts to slow surging growth, the FT says. China’s GDP increased 9.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the government said on Friday, down slightly from 9.8 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2010, but still faster than most economists had predicted. Meanwhile, benchmark consumer prices rose 5.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier in March, a big increase over February’s 4.9 per cent and the highest reading in 32 months. The Wall Street Journal points out that China has recently tweaked the way it reports GDP figures.

This entry was posted by Tracy Alloway on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 9:22 and is featured in The Lunch Wrap (15 Apr 2011) . Tagged with china, gdp, inflation. Edit this entry.