Economy 'better than expected'

The government sees a "better than expected" trend in the economy following the "initial success" in implementing the $586 billion stimulus package rolled out last November to deal with the global financial crisis.

First-quarter GDP growth totaled 6,574 billion yuan ($960 billion), or an annualized growth of 6.1 percent - although it was much slower than last year's 10.6 percent, and a shade lower than the 6.8 percent of the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

Industrial output rose 5.1 percent year on year, much of the growth achieved in March, which witnessed 8.3 percent growth, the NBS said.