The consumer price index (CPI) was up 4.8 percent, exceeding the government's target of 3 percent. The CPI was also 3.3 percentage points higher than in 2006.

Food prices, which account for a third of the index, drove the CPI higher: they were up 12.3 percent during 2007.

Xie said that the pressure of excess liquidity also contributed to the CPI rise.

The outstanding amount of narrow money, or M1 (cash plus corporate current deposits), stood at 15.3 trillion yuan, up 21 percent, while that of broad money, or M2 (M1 plus residential savings deposits), amounted to 40.3 trillion yuan, up 16.7 percent. Cash in circulation (M0) increased 12.1 percent to 3.03 trillion yuan.

M1 growth was up 3.5 percentage points from 2006. M2 growth slipped 0.2 percentage point. M0 growth dipped 0.6 percentage point.

Last year, China's foreign trade volume increased 23.5 percent to $2.17 trillion, 0.3 percentage points higher.

The total included $1.22 trillion dollars in export value, up 25.7 percent, and $955.8 trillion in import value, up 20.8 percent. The export growth was 1.5 percentage points slower while the import growth was 0.8 percentage points quicker.

Trade surplus soared $84.7 billion, or 47.7 percent, to $262.2 billion.

Foreign direct investment in non-financial sectors amounted to $74.8 billion nationwide, up 13.6 percent. The outstanding amount of the country's foreign exchange reserve grew 43.3 percent to $1.53 trillion.

According to Xie Fuzhan, the past five years have seen the best economic performance in China. During this period, the nation's fiscal revenue grew from 1.89 trillion yuan to more than five trillion yuan, with urbanites' per-capita income rising 9.8 percent and rural dwellers' pure income per-capita going up 6.8 percent annually.

The residents' per-capita disposable income was 13,786 yuan in urban areas last year, up 17.2 percent, or 12.2 percent on real term, while the per-capita pure income was 4,140 yuan in rural areas, up 15.4 percent, or 9.5 percent allowing for price rises. Unemployment ratio in urban areas averaged four percent at the end of the year.

China is now in an era of expediated industrialization and urbanization, with great potentials for further economic growth, said Zhang Liqun, a senior researcher with the macroeconomy department of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

He said the nation's GDP growth was unlikely to be lower than 10 percent for 2008, but would be slightly lower than the 2007 rate of 11.4 percent.

Wang Xiaoguang also believed the GDP would grow at a pace higher than 10 percent, as investment incentive remained great.