BEIJING: China’s economy expanded 7.0 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday, slumping to a new post global financial crisis low and raising analyst expectations for more action to bolster growth.

The figure announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was lower than expansion of 7.3 percent in the final three months of last year, but exceeded the median forecast of 6.9 percent in an Agence France-Presse survey of 15 economists.

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