Think tank: Chinese economy to rise 10 percent in 2010
By: Alfred Tian
2010-02-07
Source: People's Daily, Renmin Ribao by People's Daily
A top government think tank has forecasted that China's economic growth will hit at least 10 percent in 2010, after the world's major developing country has regained momentum to the fast-track growth.
The Centre for Forecasting Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that GDP could grow by 11 percent in the first quarter of the year, before slightly slowing down for the rest of 2010. The average growth rate will be at least 10 per cent.
Investment was expected to increase as a result of the government's economic stimulus package, but overall growth rate in investment for the year would fall to 25 percent, the Centre said.
China's GDP, which is poised to overtake Japan this year, expanded by 8.7 percent in 2009. It returned to double-digit growth in the fourth quarter last year, with a 10.7 percent growth -- the fastest in two years.
A government stimulus package worth 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) has widely been credited with sustaining growth in a year when much of the global economy was in serious recession.
The report estimated that China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, would increase by more than 3 percent in 2010 as an economic revival and liquidity helped drive up prices.
Exports, meanwhile, were expected to rise by 17 percent and imports by 19 percent, it added.