From Financial Times:
China has recorded double-digit growth for the fourth year in succession, according to the country’s top economic planner, amid rising tension between the push for continued fast development and the environment.
Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on the agency’s website on Friday that the economy had grown by 10.5 per cent in 2006 “according to initial calculations”.
But the 10.5 per cent figure is in line with expectations following the government’s mild austerity campaign in the latter half of the year, when it directed banks to slow lending and also lifted interest rates. Mr Ma said the rate of growth was “still too fast and the cost is too large”.[Full Text]
