Chinese economy grew at a rapid pace of 9.8 per cent in the last three months of 2010, fuelled by higher industrial production and retail sales, according to official data.
The staggering gross domestic product expansion, which beat expectations, has also sparked concerns of further monetary tightening measures, as China is also grappling with rising inflation and risk of overheating.
"In terms of (2010) growth by quarters, it was up 11.9 per cent for the first quarter, 10.3 per cent growth for the second quarter, 9.6 per cent for the third quarter and 9.8 per cent for the last quarter," National Bureau of Statistics of China said on Thursday.
China was expected to record a growth of little over 9 per cent in the December quarter.
One of the world's fastest growing economies, China's GDP was estimated to be worth 39.79 trillion yuan at end of 2010.
The high quarterly growth, primarily came on the back of better industrial production -- which rose 13.3 per cent in the December quarter --
For the full year, the Chinese economy expanded 10.3 per cent at comparable prices. Despite recent moves towards a tighter monetary policy regime, China's inflation climbed to 4.6 per cent in December.
Even though, inflation dropped from a high of 5.1 per cent in November, experts feel that prices are likely to increase in the coming months.
