GDP growth to stay strong
22 February 2006
Economic growth will stay robust in 2006, hitting 9.2% or 9.3%, the director of the State Council's State Information Center economic forecasting department has said. While a decline on last year's 9.9% growth rate is expected and some prices could fall, Fan argued that this was different from deflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, producer price index (PPI) rose 3.1% last month, the National Bureau of Statistics announced, prompting fears of increased deflationary pressure due to oversupply and a fall in food price growth. The PPI, which measures wholesale prices of goods, is down on the 2005 average of 4.9%.