China's economy has been doing well since the beginning of the year, demonstrating that macro-economic control measures introduced since the latter half of last year have been effective, Li Deshui, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Saturday.
Addressing the two-day China Forum on Economic Growth 2004 which opened on Saturday in Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, Li said that the country's economy grew at a rapid rate, with rising but controllable prices, improved employment situation and international balance of payment so far this year.
China notched 9.31 trillion yuan (US$1.12 trillion) in gross domestic product from January to September, up 9.5 percent from the same period last year, with no major fluctuations, Li said.
In the first three quarters of the year, consumer prices rose 4.1 percent, still within the controllable range and the rise was slower than previously, he noted.
During the same period, China's economic expansion has created 7.74 million new jobs, meeting 86 percent of the employment goal set for the whole of 2004.
From January to September, the inflow of foreign direct investment was US$48.7 billion, up 21 percent. The nation's foreign exchange reserves grew US$111.2 billion to reach US$514.5 billion at the end of September.
Li also said the government will continue to carry out various policies to tighten and improve the macro-economic control.
Tang Min, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank Resident Mission in China, also said on Saturday that China's economic macro control policy is "good for the world, especially developing countries."
He said that economists were initially worried about the possible negative influence that might be exerted by China's macro-economic control over the regional economy, but judging from the economic performance in the first three quarters of the year, "there have been almost no such negative elements."
"Foreign investment continued to increase. It shows that China's economy has provided plenty of opportunities to foreign investors, who haven't lost their confidence in the Chinese economy because of the government's macro-control policy." Tang said.
"Foreign investors are more concerned with medium- and long-term development. Major fluctuations in the Chinese economy will be bad for foreign investors," said the ADB chief economist in China.
In the past several months, China issued a series of policies to encourage domestic enterprises to invest overseas. Tang said it would be a "win-win" deal for developing countries because they need funds and more employment opportunities, and China has been struggling to find new outlets for its capital, technologies and products.