China's economy expanded 11.9% from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2010, the government said Thursday, a strong result that highlighted both the strength of the recovery in the world's third-largest economy and the increasing risks of overheating.

In a statement issued before the latest data were published, China's State Council said the nation's economic recovery has been further consolidated in recent months, but there are still prominent problems and risks to deal with. Top of the list is an increasingly frothy real-estate market: property prices in China grew at the fastest pace in nearly five years in March, according to official figures issued Wednesday.

The national property-price index rose 11.7% in March from a year earlier, accelerating from February's 10.7% rise, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The increase was the largest since July 2005, when the bureau switched to an index based on data in 70 cities, rather than 35.