BOAO, Hainan - China's economy would grow 8.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, a senior official with the country's top economic planner said Tuesday.

Consumer prices would grow 3.5 percent from one year earlier in the first three months, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, at the 2012 annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia.

Zhang said the figures were "preliminary results from a research institute," without elaborating.

The official GDP figure for the first quarter is scheduled to come out on April 13, and consumer price index on April 9.

The three-day forum is slated to end late Tuesday in Boao, a scenic town on the eastern coast of China's southernmost island province of Hainan.