China's economy grew 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2018, the statistics bureau reported on Tuesday. That topped a consensus estimate of 6.7 percent year-over-year growth for the quarter. "They are trying to deleverage the economy, they are also trying to reign in some of that credit growth," Sian Fenner, economist at Oxford Economics told CNBC on Tuesday ahead of China's first-quarter GDP release. The tightening of monetary policy and exports "still being quite supportive of growth but not quite accelerating at the same pace," will affect growth in 2018, she added. Oxford Economic's full-year GDP ... (full story)

China’s economic expansion held up amid robust consumer spending, underpinning global growth and giving authorities more room to purge excessive borrowing. Gross domestic product increased 6.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, matching the pace from the previous quarter as projected in a Bloomberg survey Retail sales increased 10.1 percent in March from a year earlier, compared with a 9.7 percent forecast Industrial production rose 6.0 percent last month, versus a projected 6.3 percent Fixed-asset investment climbed 7.5 percent in the first three months The urban monthly surveyed unemployment rate ... (full story)