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Statistics chief: No inflation risk in 2009

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-04 20:18

BEIJING: China's chief statistician said on Saturday that he saw no risk of inflation for the country in the second half of 2009, reinforcing recent comments playing down worries about credit-fuelled price rises.

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"I believe that in the second half of this year there are no risks of inflation in view," Ma Jiantang, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a forum in Beijing.

Ma's remarks came a day after Li Yang, a former adviser to the People's Bank of China, said China's rapid money and credit growth would not fuel inflation.

Consumer prices fell 1.4 percent in the year to May, marking the fourth straight month of falls in the CPI.

But some economists have expressed concern that a record burst of bank lending is feeding into money supply growth and will eventually generate inflation. Others are more worried that part of the flood of money is finding its way into the property and stock markets, inflating new bubbles.