NBS head warns against price rebounds in 2012

China's top statistical official Ma Jiantang Monday warned of lasting price increase pressures in the country and suggest government policies should maintian stability, continuity and vigilance.

"The foundation for stablizing prices is not firm, and there's still possibilities for a price rebound," said Ma, head of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in an article published on Qiushi Magazine.

Last week, the NBS announced the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.1 percent year-on-year in December, marking a 15-month low.

However, Ma points out that rising labor, land and resource costs are contributing to increased inflation in the long term. Meanwhile the lasting easing monetary policies adopted by developed countries amid a slow global recovery would also import liquidity into the country.

Still, China has many "favorable conditions" - such as an accelerating process of industrialization and urbanization - for achieving steady and rapid economic growth in the mid- and long-terms despite developed nations' sluggish recovery and slowing growth among emerging economies.

In the short run, fixed-asset investment, which remains a major engine driving economic growth in China, is expected to maintain rapid growth in 2012, while residential consumption, another growth engine, will keep stable growth this year, he said.

Chinese economic growth dropped to 9.2 percent in 2011, the NBS announced Tuesday. It's widedly accepted that GDP growth may drop further to about 8 percent in 2012.

GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2011 stood at 9.4 percent, a number Ma described as a "hard-won achievement" for the world's second-largest economy amid the global recession.