China's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rise by over 10 percent in the first half of 2006 and by over 9 percent for the whole year, surpassing the anticipated 9 percent growth, director of the State Statistics Bureau (SSB) Qiu Xiaohua said during an interview given to the media recently.

Qiu said that GDP growth had remained at about 10 percent and would keep around the level in the short term. In 2010, the annual average growth of GDP would exceed the aim of 7.5 percent.

Qiu attributed the growth to China¡¯s sound economic fundamentals including industrial production, construction and retail sale, and he predicted the Chinese economy would continue its rapid growth in the future.

Domestic inflation will mildly rebound in the second half of 2006, pushing CPI up to about 2 percent in 2006. As a matter of fact, the developing model of high growth with low inflation is desired by every country. According to the statistics released recently, the Chinese economy is lying in the zone.

Qiu said it would be better to keep the growth rate at 20 to 25 percent, but the actual rate had reached 30 percent by now in 2006.

He deemed that the government should adopt suitable not drastic measures to control the growth rate of fix assets investment because of the mild inflatio and should keep an eye on the effect of the previous policies.

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