China`s Growth to Take Hit: Wen

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Beijing: China's economic growth
will take a hit from the global financial crisis, even as inflation remains a serious challenge, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a signed article.

"The global financial turmoil and the economic downturn are getting worse," Wen said in the article carried by Qiushi, a journal published by the Communist Party.

"Inflationary pressure remains large as the world oil price is still at a high level despite some corrections."

"All these negative factors have affected and will continue to affect China," he warned.

China's growth slowed to nine per cent in the third quarter of this year, the lowest quarterly figure since the second quarter of 2003, partly due to a slowdown in exports.

China's trade surplus for the first nine months of the year reached 180.9 billion dollars, down 2.6 per cent year-on-year, according to customs data.

Wen said that maintaining quick growth should "take an even more prominent position" among the government's priorities.

Meanwhile, he called for a continued focus on inflation because of "its harm to economic growth, people's lives and social stability."

The consumer price index rose 4.6 percent in September from a year earlier, compared with a 12-year high of 8.7 per cent in February.






Via News