2018.04.1522:32:00UTC+00China Economy Upbeat in 2018 Despite Trump Dispute

The Chinese economy is expected to have powered ahead in the first quarter. According to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey, expansion maintained a 6.8 percent pace, well ahead of a target for about 6.5 percent growth in 2018.

The report is set for release on Tuesday, along with retail sales and industrial production data for March. The statistics bureau also will begin monthly release of a survey-based unemployment rate, the first regularly updated gauge for the world's biggest labor market that's similar to indexes for other major economies like the U.S. and Europe.

Economic growth of 6.8 percent in the first quarter would match the pace of expansion in the last three months of 2017 and be just a fraction off the 6.9 percent recorded for last year. People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang last week said economic indicators performed better than expected in the first quarter, amid continued improvement in the global outlook.

Retail sales are expected to have grown 9.7 percent in March, matching readings in the first two months, while industrial production rose 6.4 percent, a slowdown from January and February, according to economist estimates. Fixed-asset investment is seen slowing to 7.7 percent in the first quarter compared to 9.2 percent a year earlier. China combines some indicators for the first two months of the year due to an annual holiday.

Looming large over everything is the risk that trade tensions with the U.S. morph into a protracted, widening conflict. Friction has escalated as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on some $150 billion of imports from China, and Beijing announced potential retaliation on U.S. goods including soybeans and airliners.

A week after escalating tensions by threatening tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese products, Trump recently said that the two countries ultimately may end up levying no new tariffs on each other.