China: Beyond 10% Growth in 2010

BEIJING, April 8 — China’s economy is likely to grow by more than 10 per cent in 2010, thanks to recovering exports and rising consumption, a government researcher said in remarks published today.
Gross domestic product expanded 8.7 per cent in 2009. Growth of 10 per cent this year would almost certainly catapult China past Japan and make it the world’s second-largest economy.
Chen Dongqi, deputy head of the macro economic research institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, also said growth in industrial output this year would reach 18 per cent or more.

Consumer inflation can be held within comfortable limits given the plentiful supply of grains and durable goods, although inflationary risk would mount in the next one or two years, Chen told the People’s Daily’s overseas edition.
He sounded a warning note that the rising bill for imported raw materials and increasing resource taxes would add to corporate costs, pushing up producer prices in coming quarters.
Chen played down concern about a property bubble. “The tightening measures launched in recent months will gradually curb the acceleration in property prices,” he told the newspaper. — Reuters