China's first-quarter GDP expanded 4.8 percent compared to a year ago amid pressures from a more complicated and grimmer international environment and a resurgent of COVID-19 cases, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

The country's gross domestic product reached 27.02 trillion yuan ($4 trillion) in the first quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China's GDP grew by 1.3 percent in the first three months of the year, the NBS said. 

China, the world's second-largest economy, maintained steady growth in the first quarter with the help of the government's effective measures to prevent and control the pandemic, Fu Linghui, spokesman with the NBS, told at a news conference in Beijing.

The country's value-added industrial output grew 6.5 percent on a yearly basis in the first quarter, with the March reading jumping 5 percent year-on-year, the NBS data showed.

Retail sales grew by 3.3 percent to 10.87 trillion yuan in the first quarter from the same period last year. 

Fixed-asset investment rose by 9.3 percent year-on-year and 0.61 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, the bureau said. 

The surveyed urban jobless rate came in at 5.8 percent last month, up from 5.5 percent in February, the bureau said. 

The NBS warned of challenges and mounting uncertainties at home and abroad, saying more efforts will be made to step up macroeconomic policy support, stabilize employment and keep the economy running within a reasonable range. 

ouyangshijia@chinadaily.com.cn