(Representative image)

BEIJING: China's economy contracted for the first time in decades last quarter as drastic measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic brought activity to a standstill, official data showed Friday.

Gross domestic product shrank 6.8 per cent in the January-March quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

It was the first negative growth reported by the world's second-largest economy since it began logging quarterly data in the early 1990s.

The figure marks a sharp drop from China's six per cent expansion in the fourth quarter of last year, but was slightly better than the 8.2 per cent contraction forecast by economists in an AFP poll.

Economists in China and abroad have long harboured doubts about the accuracy of the official data, however, suspecting that the numbers are massaged for political reasons.

Analysts warn of tougher times ahead, with weaker external demand for Chinese goods to weigh on growth as its key trading markets are battered by COVID-19.

Full-year GDP growth expectations have fallen to 1.7 per cent, according to AFP's poll, which would be the worst annual performance since 1976.

The coronavirus and resulting containment efforts have already hammered China's retail sales and industrial production.

Industrial output shrank 1.1 per cent in March, reflecting lingering damage from factory shutdowns even as travel restrictions in the country were progressively eased and businesses stirred back to life.

Retail sales also plummeted 15.8 per cent last month as many consumers stayed at home and avoided crowds due to fears of a resurgence in virus cases.

The urban unemployment rate also dropped slightly to 5.9 per cent last month, after surging to 6.2 per cent in February.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that COVID-19 will trigger a global recession likely to be the deepest economic contraction since the 1930s, and pegged China's 2020 growth at a grim 1.2 per cent.

