Chinese Economy Surges 11.5 Percent

Growth exceeded forecasts but was below the 11.9 percent rate reported in the previous quarter. It was driven by a double-digit surge in exports and investment in factories and other fixed assets despite repeated interest rate hikes.

Gross domestic product for the first nine months of the year also expanded 11.5 percent from the same period of 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

But a spokesman said the government has succeeded in keeping the rapid expansion under control.

"Due to macroeconomic controls, we have turned the economy from being an overheating one to being one of speedy growth," bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao said at a news conference.

The communist government wants to maintain fast growth to ease poverty but worries that a runaway expansion or overspending on real estate and other assets could ignite a financial crisis. Beijing has raised interest rates five times this year to tamp down investment, and economists expect another hike later in the year.

Li said China's economic growth should not be affected by the credit market turmoil in the United States. But he said rising oil prices and a possible global economic slowdown were making the country's economic performance in the coming year more uncertain.

Total third-quarter economic output was 16.6 trillion yuan ($2.2 trillion), according to the statistics bureau.

China is on track to overtake Germany in December or early in 2008 as the world's third-largest economy after the United States and Japan. But per capita income for China's population of 1.3 billion people will still be far smaller than that of those economies.

Consumer prices in September were 6.2 percent higher than the same month last year, the bureau said, confirming a report last week by another government agency. That was slightly below the 11-year high rate of 6.5 percent in August but still well ahead of the government's 3-percent target for the year.

Chinese officials have blamed the inflation surge on a shortage of food items, especially pork, the country's staple meat. They say prices should ease in coming months as government efforts to increase food supplies take effect.