China's economy expanded at a 6.9 per cent pace in 2017, faster than expected and the first annual increase in seven years, the government reports.
The numbers beat economists' forecasts for the world's second largest economy and the Chinese government's own official growth target of 6.5 per cent. The economy expanded at a 6.7 per cent pace in 2016, its slowest pace in 26 years.
Growth in the fourth quarter held steady at 6.8 per cent, the report said.
It said strong demand for exports and buoyant consumer spending helped drive the faster expansion. Those factors helped to offset curbs on bank lending that forecasters had predicted would be a drag on economic growth.
"The national economy has maintained the momentum of stable and sound development and exceeded expectations," said the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
"China's growth is very healthy," said Iris Pang, Greater China Economist, ING, Hong Kong.
"The risks that we worried about in 2017, for example overcapacity cuts having a negative impact on GDP, did not happen because new sectors are actually coming out to help production to grow."
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