China's economy slowed in the second quarter of this year, with annual growth down from 11.9% in the first quarter to 10.3%.
The latest figure - slightly below market forecasts of 10.5% - indicates that the Chinese government's measures to cool the economy down are working, after a record credit surge last year. Beijing has been scaling back massive stimulus spending and trying to rein in soaring property prices.
Premier Wen Jiabao has said that the Chinese economy - the world's third largest - is going in the expected direction.
So far, the moves appear to be achieving their objective of reducing inflation, with the producer price index coming in below economist forecasts at 6.4%, and the consumer price index also lower than expected, at 2.9%.
Within moments of the announcement on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar rose a quarter of a cent against its American counterpart to 72.3 US cents. It fell back again later, however, and by close of trading on the local sharemarket was at 71.96 US cents.
