"Consumption is still not the real driving force behind economic growth," said Dong, saying signs of overheating are already obvious enough for the government to consider raising interest rates.

Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with the Asian Development Bank, said in an earlier interview that the government should adopt more prudent monetary policies if growth in the first quarter were more than 10 percent.

But Hu at the State Information Center said it is too early to say the economy is overheating based on the first quarter figures, given the low base of comparison in the same period last year.

The government must be very careful if it considers tightening measures, he said.

"With growth now strong but headline inflation still subdued, the government has a window of opportunity to rein in the policy stimulus before it tips over into excess," Tom Orlick, an analyst at Beijing for Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, said in a report.

"Growth is running too hot. It requires policy tightening," said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist with Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. He called Thursday's data "a dangerous mix" because the low inflation reading would delay a rise in borrowing costs.

The State Council, the cabinet, promised on Wednesday after a preview of the data to stick to the "appropriately loose" monetary stance and active fiscal policy first adopted at the height of the global financial crisis in late 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2010)