Beijing - China's economy continued to accelerate in the fourth quarter, as inflation is easing only slightly, showing that a series of cooling measures by Beijing over the last year have had only a limited effect.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday put the pace of growth at 10.3 percent for the full year, up from 9.2 percent in 2009.
The pace of growth in the last three months of 2010 — 9.8 percent — accelerated from the 9.6 percent recorded for July-September quarter. Both the quarterly and annual figures were significantly above what analysts had expected.
Taken together, the data and a number of other statistics in recent days supported the view of many economists who believe that the government will have to further tighten monetary policy, which could eventually lead the Chinese currency to appreciate against the dollar.
The American government would welcome a stronger renminbi and has been pushing China to allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly.
The exchange rate has been a major topic of President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States this week.
And yet, while Beijing has allowed some appreciation against the dollar since mid-2010, the change has been small and is likely to remain so in the near future, analysts say.
The Chinese economy, buoyed by ample lending and significant state investment projects, powered ahead last year, overtaking Japan to become the world's second-largest, after the United States.
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