Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China economy grew fast in 2004 despite the government's attempt to prevent it from overheating. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported yesterday a 9.5 per cent growth rate last year against 9.3 per cent the previous year with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaching US$ 1.65 trillion as exports continued to drive expansion.

Li Deshui, NBS commissioner, said the country had achieved "tangible" results in cementing macro-controls and had curbed "unhealthy and unstable" factors in the economy.

"National economic development," he said, "will maintain the good momentum of stable and rapid growth with mild increase in prices as long as we follow the guiding principle of the scientific concepts of economic and social development set forth by the central government."

He added that China must "implement various measures in strengthening and improving macro-economic regulations, continuously push reform and opening programs and make efforts in building a harmonious society".

Despite government reassurances, worries that the economy was dangerously overheated as a result of easy credit and soaring infrastructural investments still persist.

The NBS warned that inflation rose at an alarming rate, hitting a peak of 5.3 per cent in July and August, as inventories of cars and production steel and cement rose sharply.

Consumer prices continued to gain in 2004, rising to 3.9 per cent, some 2.7 percentage points more than in 2004, driven by soaring food prices which alone jumped by 9.9 per cent, whilst fuel prices last year increased by 11.4 percent over the previous year.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said he had no plans to relax policies designed to cool industrial expansion in an economy that is the world's largest consumer of copper, steel and cement.

It is necessary however to view Chinese economic data with a pinch of salt, not only because of their relative inaccuracy but also because they measure a social and economic system that is very different from the West. For this reason growth data might actually be under-representing real trends.