It’s the biggest jump in gross domestic product (GDP) since China started keeping quarterly records in 1992.
However, Friday’s figures are below expectations, with a Reuters poll of economists predicting 19% growth.
They are also heavily skewed, and less indicative of strong growth, as they are compared to last year’s huge economic contraction.
As a baseline, they use the first quarter of 2020, when China’s economy shrank 6.8% due to nationwide lockdowns at the peak of its Covid-19 outbreak.
Other key figures released by China’s statistics department also point to a continuing rebound, but are also unusually strong because they are compared against extremely weak numbers from last year.