Improvements in China’s industrial production, investment and exports during the first quarter of 2017  helped boost its gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 6.9 per cent year-on-year, according to recent data.

The National Bureau of Statistics’ data revealed that the GDP growth in the first three months remained steady at 0.2 percentage point higher than a year ago, showing a stabilising trend in the economy, added the China Daily report.

Although consumption growth dropped slightly, increasing at 10 per cent in the first three months, down by 0.4 percentage point compared with the whole of 2016, an uptick in infrastructure investment and a higher export growth have contributed to the stable growth.

Fixed-asset investment expanded at 9.2 per cent year-on-year in the January-March period while export growth was 14.8 per cent.

Improvement in industrial production is also a major contributor to the stable growth in the first quarter, according to the NBS.

The slight drop in consumption growth is attributable to falling vehicles sales as a result of the phase-out of preferential policies and the high base in the same period last year, according to research by the Bank of China Institute of International Finance.