BLOOMBERG in Beijing and STAFF REPORTER

The mainland economy will continue to maintain a fast pace of growth in the next year, Zheng Jingping a senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, said yesterday.

Mr Zheng said economic growth this year would be 9 per cent or slightly higher.

Three aspects of demands on the economy would continue to fuel the growth in 2005, he said at a forum on China's coal economy in Beijing.

"They are exports growth, investment growth and consumption growth," Mr Zheng was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The economist predicted that the mainland's trade would basically be balanced in the long term, with a slight surplus.

Foreign investment would continue to grow at a good pace, in view of the amount of contracted foreign direct investments.

The rise in people's income would continue to be a driver in consumer spending, Mr Zheng added.

"Inflation is being held at controllable levels for now," he said.

However, Mr Zheng admitted that there were still systemic problems in the development of the economy.

The absence of market mechanisms governing the supply of land, labour and deposit savings were among the problems obstructing the country's economic development, he said.

"There is still considerable difficulty in the macroeconomic control," he added.

Mr Zheng said the global economy was still in a stage of mild recovery and stable growth. "This will create a relatively good international environment for the development of China's economy."

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that the global economy will grow by 4.3 per cent next year, slightly lower than the 5 per cent growth this year.

Mr Zheng gave no figure for growth next year. His forecast for this year is in line with official government predictions. The government is trying to cool investment expansion in cars, steel, cement and other overheated industries.

Investment in mainland factories, roads and other fixed assets grew at a slower pace last month after the government ordered banks to curb lending.

The economy expanded by 9.1 per cent in the third quarter, its slowest pace in more than a year. The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate on October 29 for the first time in nine years.

The State Information Centre forecast that growth would ease to 8.7 per cent this quarter after the rate rise.

Central bank deputy governor Li Ruogu said last month that a growth of 7 per cent to 8 per cent would allow for a healthy economy for the next two decades.

Yesterday, Mr Li told an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation finance and development project forum in Sanya , Hainan , that the overall trade volume would reach US$120 billion this year, which would make China the third largest trading entity in the world.