Economics

The Chinese economy will grow by 11.6 percent this year, the fifth consecutive year for the country to achieve double-digit GDP growth since 2003, according to the annual "blue book" on economic forecasts by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The book was released Monday. China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, has risen strongly in recent months, reaching a decade high of 6.5 percent in both October and August.

The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) is seeking to improve land reserve system amid intense concerns over a 9.5-percent year-on-year housing price rise in 70 major Chinese cities this October. Experts hold that robust demand, tight supply, and higher land development costs drove up housing prices and the government's new move is a bid to regulate the real estate market and curb rises in housing prices.

China is likely to produce nearly 500 million mobile phones in 2007, or more than 40 percent of the world's total, according to a prediction by the Ministry of Information Industry on Tuesday. The forecast figure is 41 percent higher than the output in 2006. Of the total production, around 400 million mobile phones will be exported.