» The National Statistics Bureau announced that first quarter’s GDP growth was 6.1 percent, compared to 6.8 percent in last three months of 2008.

» The number is the slowest growth China has seen since 1992, but it is still high compared to that of other countries hit by the economic and financial crisis.

» According the recently revised economic data of 2007, China’s fastest GDP increase, 14 percent, occurred in the second quarter of 2007.

» The peak and trough of the cycle coincide with the subprime crisis in the U.S., demonstrating the Chinese economy’s high level of dependency on external demand.

» Economists and market participants generally agree that China’s economy is starting to recover.

» Caijing’s chief economist Shen Minggao warns that without structural change the recovery will only be temporary.