CRI听力：China's Economy Grew By 11.5% in First 9 Months

Anchor: China's gross domestic product in the third quarter this year grew 11.5 percent compared to the same period last year, slower than the 11.9 percent of the second quarter.

A Chinese official says the central government's macro-economic controls have prevented the economy from over heating.

Our reporter Dan Dan has more.

Reporter: Addressing a press conference on Thursday, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, Li Xiaochao says China's efforts in improving macro-economic controls have helped to lay a good foundation for its sustainable economic development.

"In recent years, our country's infrastructure industry has achieved further progresses. Energy supply is greatly improved, the transportation sector has also been continuously expanded."

The country's GDP dropped by 0.4 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the consumer price index or CPI, a barometer of inflation, came down to 6.2 percent in September from an 11-year-high of 6.5 percent in August.

"We've taken good advantage of the period when the world economy is developing comparatively fast. Thus, we've guaranteed the momentum for our economy to grow quickly, steadily and to be sustainable."

Li Xiaochao says thanks to effective macro-economic controls, consumption demand, investment demand and export demand have changed in a positive way.

"According to preliminary estimates, in the first nine months of this year, consumption has contributed 37 percent to economic growth, while investment and export have contributed 41.6 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively."

A key task in macro economic control is the adjustment of the relationship between investment and consumption. The real aim of it, Li Xiaochao says, is to enable consumption to contribute more to the economic growth.

"The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has reiterated the importance of this task. On one hand, it can help to guarantee a steady growth of GDP. On the other hand, the country is focused on solving demands to improve people's livelihood."

The latest figures show that China's GDP growth rate for the first nine months of this year is 11.5 percent, while the number of CPI growth rate stands at 4.1 percent.

It is said that the growth was driven by the rapid growth in the credit and investment sector.

The rapid growth of GDP, and credit and investment has increased pressure for further monetary tightening. The central bank has raised interest rates five times and the bank reserve ratio eight times so far this year.

Last week, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan pledged to take a more aggressive approach to prevent the economy from overheating.

He pledged to use monetary tools to keep the economy on track, including manipulating interest rates and exchange rates, making adjustments of bank reserve ratios, and opening market operations.

Chinese analysts say that as the CPI for September has eased, it is too early to predict whether the central bank will raise interest rates again.

Dan Dan, CRI news.