BEIJING - CHINA'S annual GDP growth slipped to a record low in the first quarter, but the quarter-on-quarter increase might point to a recovery, a domestic news portal reported on Wednesday.

'China's annual GDP growth in the first quarter was higher than 6.0 per cent, but lower than the 6.8 per cent increase in the fourth quarter of 2008,' according to the the Shanghai Securities News website.

Anything less than 6.8 per cent would be the lowest since China's quarterly growth records began in 1992. The article did not identify its sources.

It also cited Southwest Securities analyst Dong Xian'an as saying that annualised quarterly growth was 6 per cent in the first quarter, compared with 1 percent in the last three months of 2008.

'Last year's fourth quarter was the bottom for our economy and currently economic growth is evidently recovering,' he was paraphrased as saying.

The National Bureau of Statistics will announce GDP growth and other economic data for the first quarter at 2am GMT (10am Singapore time) on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast that China's economy grew at an annual rate of 6.3 per cent in the first quarter.