Still driving global growth

China's GDP achieved a 6.9 percent growth year-on-year based on comparable prices in the first quarter of this year. From the perspective of the world economic pattern, this is an economic performance beyond extensive market expectations and its biggest effect will be to further consolidate China's status as the world's economic stabilizer and engine. Many market analysts previously anticipated that China would maintain such a status for the foreseeable future, but the first-quarter performance will further enhance their confidence in the Chinese economy.

For China's trading partners and the world economy, promoting the interaction between China's economic growth and its wider opening-up, and between China's economic growth and its expanding imports offer a good opportunity for them to take a free ride on the fast-driving Chinese train.