China's economy will grow at least 10 percent in the second quarter and in 2006 as a whole despite measures to cool down its booming economy, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Saturday.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank. [baidu.com]

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of central bankers at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Zhou said: "I think probably for the entire year it's also something around 10 percent."

He said second-quarter growth would also be "probably quite high" at above 10 percent.

Despite measures to curb growth, recent data has suggested that China's economy is steaming ahead, with investment in factories and other fixed assets in the first five months of 2006 jumping 30.3 percent from a year before.

In the first quarter of 2005, China's economy expanded by 10.3 percent.

China surprised financial markets in April by raising interest rates for the first time in 18 months. It hiked its benchmark one-year lending rate to 5.85 percent from 5.58 percent.

The central bank also raised the amount of cash that banks have to hold in reserve by 0.5 percentage points earlier this month to rein in frenzied lending and excessive investment.

"The direction is to gradually tighten up," Zhou said.

However, Zhou said China did want to risk an economic slowdown.

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