China has entered an era of slower growth and must adjust to the end of three decades of double-digit annual economic expansion, the government warned on Monday.

Economic growth unexpectedly slowed to 7.7 per cent in the first quarter compared with a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. “After 30 years of high-speed economic growth, potential productivity in China has dropped,” said Shen Laiyun, bureau spokesman. “During the economic transformation period of other countries, such as Germany, Japan and South Korea, their overall economic growth rates also fell to a lower level.”

Significantly slower Chinese growth will affect economies across the world and hurt exporters of raw materials that have become reliant on surging Chinese demand over the past decade.