The Chinese yuan will rise 2 to 8 percent annually in the next five years and the economy will score another double-digit growth in 2006, state media on Sunday cited a study as saying.

The yuan would appreciate continuously from 2006 to 2010, the Beijing News quoted the Renmin University report as saying.

"The annual rate will be 2 to 8 percent," the report said.

China revalued the yuan by 2.1 percent to 8.11 per dollar last July and abandoned a dollar peg to let it float within managed bands.

It has since strengthened a further 1.5 percent, far too little for critics in the United States who say it remains unfairly undervalued.

The report, released in April with little publicity, also forecast a 10 percent expansion for the Chinese economy in 2006, maintaining the growth rate of the past three years. First-quarter economic output was up 10.2 percent on a year earlier.

"The report points out that the current rapid growth in gross domestic product does not amount to overheating," the paper said. "Rather, it is merely fast and sound development."

"Although there are problems in various aspects, this good momentum of the Chinese economy will not stop," it quoted the prominent university as saying.

But the government has repeatedly warned against overheating this year and has adopted a slew of measures to try to rein in runaway growth in fixed-asset investment, credit and industrial capacity.

The report was co-authored by Renmin University president Ji Baocheng, known as an economic nationalist who said earlier this year China had "lost" $60 billion since 1993 by listing state firms abroad that would have fetched a higher IPO price at home.