BEIJING, April 19: China's economy grew a blistering 11.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2007, the government said on Thursday as it called for fresh measures to put the country on a more sustainable course.

The rapid expansion and acceleration of the world's fourth-largest economy in the first three months of the year is likely to have been boosted by a yawning trade surplus and massive investment in infrastructure.

“We must carefully carry out all policies of the central government and continue to strengthen and improve macro-economic control measures,” Li Xiaochao, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters.

Growth in the world's fourth-largest economy was 10.7 per cent in 2006 and ran at 10.4 per cent in the three months to December.

The first three months of 2007 also saw the highest quarterly growth rate since the second quarter of last year, when the economy expanded 11.5 per cent, according to revised government data.

Analysts had expected China to pick up speed in the first quarter, with most forecasts at around 11 per cent, well above the government's official forecast of 8 per cent for 2007 as a whole.

The acceleration has come about despite a whole series of cooling measures adopted by the government since early last year, including interest rate hikes and reduction of tax incentives for exporters.

“Investment and credit are rising fast, and the trade surplus is large,” said Ma Qing, an analyst with Citic Securities in Beijing.

China's consumer price index rose 2.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 from a year earlier, and was up 3.3 per cent in March alone, the bureau said.

The government is targeting an inflation rate within three per cent so the March outcome will be of concern as prices have ticked steadily higher so far this year. —AFP