Country's growth to get further policy support

China needs and has space for policy support to respond to economic headwinds in order to make progress toward meeting its growth target, a senior official of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

The nation's 4.8 percent GDP growth rate in the first quarter was higher than the consensus forecast and "surprised many people", Krishna Srinivasan, deputy director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, told China Daily.

In the latest World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, the IMF forecast that China's economy would grow 4.4 percent this year, which is 1.1 percentage points lower than the target of around 5.5 percent set by China last month.