China's economy expanded 7.0 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, official data showed Wednesday, beating expectations but with weak investment and trade acting as a drag.

The figure announced by the National Bureau of Statistics matched the 7.0 percent expansion in the first three months of this year, and exceeded the median forecast of 6.9 percent in an AFP survey of 14 economists.

China's economy, the world's second biggest, expanded 7.4 percent last year, slower than the 7.7 percent in 2013, and its weakest annual growth since 3.8 percent in 1990.

The NBS also said industrial output, which measures production at factories, workshops and mines, rose 6.8 percent year-on-year in June.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.6 percent last month from the year before, the NBS said, adding that fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 11.4 percent in January-June on-year.