China's economy grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the year, versus a 6.8 percent contraction in the first quarter, driven by a number of improving economic indicators, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

In the first half of the year, the country's GDP contracted by 1.6 percent from a year earlier to 45.66 trillion yuan ($6.53 trillion), the NBS said. 

The Chinese economy has steadily recovered as epidemic containment bore fruit, with people’s basic livelihood safeguarded and market expectation brightening, the bureau said in a statement.

Industrial output contracted by 1.3 percent year-on-year over the first half of the year, narrowing by 7.1 percentage points from the first quarter, according to the NBS. 

The production index measuring the services sector dropped by 6.1 percent year-on-year in the first six months, improving by 5.6 percentage points from the first quarter. 

Retail sales fell by 11.4 percent over the same period, recovering from the plunge of 19 percent in the first quarter. 

Meanwhile, the country registered a 3.1 percent contraction in fixed-asset investment during the January-June period, narrowing by 3.2 percentage points from the first five months and 13 percentage points from the first three months. 

Surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 5.7 percent in June, versus 5.9 percent in May, the bureau said.