BEIJING--China's economy contracted for the first time since at least 1992 in the first quarter when the coronavirus pandemic halted factories and kept millions confined to their homes.
Gross domestic product fell 6.8% from a year earlier, compared with 6.0% growth in the fourth quarter of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.
The result was better than the median forecast of an 8.3% contraction in a poll of economists by The Wall Street Journal.
It was the first time the economy had contracted in a quarter since 1992, when the government began to release quarterly figures.
The economy was 9.8% smaller when compared with the fourth quarter of 2019.
The spread of coronavirus and the government's containment measures ground the world's second-largest economy to a near standstill in early 2020.
Other economic data reported Friday, including investment, consumption and industrial production, also suffered falls.