The first quarter saw a slowdown in GDP growth in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, mainly owing to macroeconomic controls.

GDP growth in 24 provincial regions reported a year-on-year decline in the first quarter while only five regions, Jiangsu province, Henan province and the Guangxi, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, maintained year-on-year GDP growth, said the Beijing Times, citing data released on Thursday by provincial statistics bureaus, except Gansu and Heilongjiang provinces.

Tibet autonomous region saw the biggest GDP growth decline, from 19.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 11.4 percent in the first three months, followed by Fujian and Guangdong provinces.

The nation's macroeconomic controls, including curbs on property prices, mainly accounted for the GDP growth decline in provincial regions, the newspaper quoted Liu Yuanchun, deputy dean of Renmin University of China, as saying.

The international economic crisis, which slowed China's foreign trade, significantly affected GDP performance in eastern regions, in addition to the domestic factors of rising costs and excessive capacity, Liu said.

Yu Xiuqin, a spokesperson for the Beijing Statistics Bureau, said that the capital's GDP growth decline "was expected and acceptable because it was the outcome of macroeconomic controls, including strict policies to real estate and automobile".