Economic growth in the first quarter did not slip below a "reasonable range", a leading expert said on Friday.

Yu Bin, director-general of the General Office of the Development Research Center of the State Council, made the statement at a media briefing prior to Wednesday's release of first quarter economic data on Wednesday.

When asked what this "range" was, he referred to Premier Li Keqiang's previous announcement that the government expected GDP growth to be "around 7 percent" and CPI growth to remain under 3 percent.

A report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated first quarter GDP growth at 6.85 percent, the lowest since the second quarter of 2009.

Yu estimated that China's exports would grow 7 percent this year, with consumption growth of around 11 percent. Real estate investment would further slow from 10.5 percent last year to around 7 percent this year, while manufacturing investment would slow to 11 percent.