China shook off the global crisis as growth surged to 10.7 percent in the final quarter of 2009 but inflation picked up, adding to pressure on Beijing to cool rising prices without disrupting the recovery.
Quarterly growth beat forecasts and boosted the 2009 expansion in the world's third-largest economy to 8.7 percent, up from a low of 6.1 percent in the first quarter.
A government spokesman declared China the first economy to recover from global slump and indicated it is shifting focus to cooling inflation that rose sharply in the fourth quarter, fueled by massive bank lending in support of a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus program.
"We need to prevent overly fast price increases," said Ma Jiantong, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, at a news conference.
Strong Chinese growth could help to drive a global recovery by boosting demand for foreign oil, consumer goods and other imports. It also might give Beijing confidence to ease currency controls and allow its yuan to rise against the dollar, which could boost imports by making them cheaper for its consumers. China has kept the yuan steady against the dollar since late 2008 to keep its exporters competitive abroad.
