The pace of China’s economic recovery rose modestly in the second quarter after signs of sluggishness in the world’s second-biggest economy had stoked expectations of greater policy support.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China’s gross domestic product grew 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of June, up from a revised 0.4 per cent expansion in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had predicted quarter-on-quarter growth of 1 to 1.2 per cent, according to polls by Bloomberg and Reuters.

Second quarter GDP was 7.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, compared with year-on-year growth of 18.3 per cent in the first quarter. The high growth in the first quarter reflected the halt in economic activity in early 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic erupted in central China and forced the government to impose a nationwide lockdown.