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China's economy grows at scorching pace, Beijing says

China's economy roared ahead in the year to the third quarter, recording scorching growth that will fuel concerns that the world's sixth-biggest economy is overheating.

GDP, a broad gauge of economic activity, rose 9.1 percent between the third quarters of last year and this year, the State Statistical Bureau said in a statement on Friday.

GDP in the first nine months of the year was up 8.5 percent on a year earlier.

But bureau deputy chief Qiu Xiaohua (邱曉華) said the economy remained plagued by problems and that unspecified measures were needed following rapid lending and credit growth.

"The economy still has many problems," Qiu said in a statement. "The difficulty in raising rural incomes that has bedevilled the economy for a long time, the relatively large unemployment pressure and other contradictions are still prominent."

Unbalanced development between investment and consumption, China's cities and villages and industrial output and energy had become more pronounced, Qiu said.

The consumer price index, which covers a basket of goods from grain to rents, was 0.7 percent higher in the first nine months than a year earlier, showing inflation was still in manageable territory.

Fixed asset investment, which includes government spending on things like roads and power plants, was up 30.5 percent in the January to September period.

Retail sales continued their rebound from the SARS outbreak earlier this year, showing a 8.6 percent rise in the first nine months from a year earlier.

Seeking to head off resurgent inflation and prevent damaging bubbles in some sectors, authorities have moved to curb lending, have slapped curbs on the buying and building of luxury property and have said they will ease back spending on infrastructure.

But figures released earlier this week gave little sign that recent measures to cool off growth were succeeding.

Some analysts have said the measures to put the economy on a more sustainable footing may fall short and that more specific policies targeting surging sectors such as steel and cement are needed.
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