CHINA's leading economists have prescribed moderate economic growth of 10 per cent next year, warning that unrestrained growth will send inflation spiralling upwards and lead to sharp ups and downs for the economy, official reports said yesterday.
The projection of a lower growth rate compared to this year's estimated 13.5 per cent was made by a group of economists under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Warning against rapid, unregulated economic growth, Executive Vice-Premier Mr Zhu Rongji indicated in an interview last week that China's goal must be for the gross national product to grow eight or nine per cent annually.
According to the China News Service, economic growth next year will stay at a relatively high level, partly because of the large amount of capital investment.
Fixed asset investment is expected to grow by 12 per cent, despite efforts by the central Government to tighten control of such investment in the past few months.
The experts said that this was because of the large number of projects launched in the past two years and the need to start major infrastructure projects this year.
Following the recall of unauthorised lending, the banking sector had already pooled an enormous amount of money for domestic investments, they said.
