BEIJING — China's economy got off to a steady start in the first quarter of 2022 despite challenges from an increasingly complex international environment and resurgences of COVID-19 cases at home.

The country's gross domestic product grew 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first three months, picking up pace from a 4-percent increase in the fourth quarter last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on April 18.

The economy posted a stable performance with continued recovery as China balanced the epidemic control and economic and social development, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui said at a press conference. 

After a strong rebound in 2021, China witnessed some unexpected challenges at the beginning of this year, with a volatile global situation and multiple sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks on the domestic front. The downward economic pressure is on the rise and some major indicators have seen slower increases, according to Fu.

"But the long-term economic fundamentals remain sound and the continued momentum of economic recovery has not changed," Fu said, emphasizing that the country is confident and capable of overcoming these difficulties.

A breakdown of the data on April 18 shows that value-added industrial output posted a stable 6.5-percent increase from a year ago in the first quarter, and fixed-asset investment jumped 9.3 percent. Retail sales of consumer goods went up 3.3 percent.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in January-March, with 2.85 million new urban jobs created in this period.