Premier Li Keqiang assured a lunchtime audience of Swiss business leaders on Friday that China's GDP growth in the first quarter is within a "reasonable range".

Indicating he did not have any intention of pump-priming the economy, Li said:"China's economy delivered steady growth in the first quarter, and is still within a reasonable range."

China's GDP growth eased to 7.7 percent on a year-to-year basis in the first quarter, down from 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.