A senior official predicted China's economy would grow at around 10 percent this year and the consumer price index would stay at two percent.

The economy would maintain its steady and fast growth the rest of the year despite a slowdown of fixed assets investment and rising loans, said Xu Yifan, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Wednesday.

NBS statistics show the growth rate of fixed assets investment, a major indicator of economic growth, dropped 5.9 percentage points over previous month to 21.5 percent in August.

Chinese banks lent 177 billion yuan (US$22.4 billion) on average per month in July and August, half of the average monthly new loans in the first six months.

The figures indicated the macro-economic control measures had taken effect and China's economy had made a good start on the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), said Xu.

China's economy grew at 10.2 percent last year and the growth rate was 10.9 percent in the first half of this year. The government has been making efforts to cool it down.

Despite the signs of slowdown, Xu warned the government should stay alert to possible overheating and over-fast growth of fixed assets investment.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2006)