BEIJING - China's consumer prices will likely stay in a controllable range as more factors come into play to stabilize the country's overall price levels, the China Securities Journal quoted a central bank official as saying on Friday.

Li Dongrong, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, made the remarks at the 2011 China Financial Development Forum, noting that the country's macroeconomy faces enormous pressures from rising prices.

"As measures adopted by the government to stabilize prices show more results and other factors weaken, more favorable factors will come into play to keep prices stable," Li said.

The major factor that will restrict the economy's sustainable development in the long run is the extensive mode of its economic growth, Li noted.

Li said accelerating the transformation of China's economic growth pattern is a "strategic task" for the country and will have an overall bearing on its economic and social development.

The country's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, surged to a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July, well above the government's target ceiling of 4 percent.

Analysts widely expect that the August CPI will retreat to around 6 percent.

To mop up liquidity and stabilize prices, the central bank has raised benchmark interest rates three times and reserve requirement ratios six times this year.