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.