Fears that the Chinese economy is overheating mounted after official figures revealed that it grew faster than expected at the end of last year and inflation remained above target.

　　Southern Guangdong province, home to China’s biggest regional economy, added to concerns by announcing a 26 per cent rise in its minimum wage.

　　The national economy grew at an annual rate of 9.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2010, and by 10.3 per cent for the entire year.

　　Consumer price inflation fell to 4.6 per cent in December, after reaching a more than two-year high of 5.1 per cent the previous month.

　　But analysts said prices would accelerate strongly in the first quarter of this year, complicating efforts to cool the economy without triggering a sharp slowdown. For the whole year, consumer prices rose 3.3 per cent, above Beijing’s target of 3 per cent. Food prices were the main culprit, increasing 7.2 per cent.

　　“The growth figures will encourage Beijing to act more decisively on taming inflation, which means more interest rate hikes are just around the corner,” said Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC. The Shanghai Composite, China’s benchmark stock market index, dropped 2.9 per cent on Thursday amid fears of monetary tightening.

　　Inflation, labour shortages and a series of strikes in major industrial areas last year have led to minimum wage increases across China. This month the Beijing municipal government increased minimum wages by 21 per cent. Officials hope higher wages will increase domestic consumption and help China become less reliant on low-cost manufacturing, exports and investment for growth.

　　Geoffrey Crothall of the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group, said the wage hike might not be enough to ease the labour shortages in Guangdong province, which accounts for much of the global production of everything from mobile phones to sports shoes.

　　Faced with rising inflation, Beijing has raised the amount banks must hold on reserve seven times over the past year, and increased interest rates twice in the fourth quarter. These attempts to rein-in loose monetary conditions have only been partially successful.

　　To get around tighter lending quotas, Chinese banks moved trillions of renminbi in loans off their balance sheets last year, repackaging them as wealth management products.

　　On Thursday, the Chinese banking regulator ordered banks to bring an estimated Rmb1,660bn ($252bn) of off- balance sheet lending back on to their books this year. Government attempts to manage liquidity have been further complicated by non-bank lending, which authorities have great difficulty quantifying.

　　According to a central bank survey, total non-bank lending amounted to about Rmb240bn last year, equivalent to 5.6 per cent of total lending. But central bank officials told the Financial Times that the true scale of informal and underground lending was likely much larger.

　　Learning to learn:

　　第一段开篇点题，只用了一句话，就说明了下文要涉及的话题。见到这样的长句我们要学来为我所用哦，分析一下这句话的主干，请用Fears that…开头早一句话。

　　Language Points:

　　1. inflation 通货膨胀 2. culprit 主要原因，罪魁祸首

　　Oral Topic:

　　What are the advantages and disadvantages of raising wages for your employees?

　　此题为BEC考试口试task2部分模拟

　　译文参考：

　　各方对于中国经济正出现过热现象的担忧有所加剧。此前官方数据显示，中国经济去年末的增速快于预期，而通胀仍高于目标水平。

　　中国最大的经济省份——广东省宣布将其最低工资标准提高26%，更是加剧了人们的忧虑。

　　中国经济2010年第四季度同比增长9.8%，全年增长10.3%。

　　12月消费者价格指数(CPI)为4.6%，较11月5.1%的逾两年高位有所回落。

　　但分析师们表示，中国消费价格将在今年首季强劲加速上涨，使政府给经济降温而又不至引发急剧减速的努力变得更加棘手。全年而言，消费价格上涨3.3%，高于北京方面制定的3%的目标水平。食品价格上涨7.2%，是推动通胀上扬的主要因素。

　　“这些增长数据将鼓励北京方面采取更果断行动制伏通胀，这意味着更多加息即将出台，”汇丰(HSBC)经济学家屈宏斌表示。中国基准股指——上证综指周四下滑2.9%，市场担心中国将收紧货币政策。

　　通胀、劳动力短缺和去年在几个工业重镇发生的一系列罢工，已导致中国各地纷纷提高最低工资标准。本月，北京市政府将最低工资提高21%。官员们希望，较高的工资将增加国内消费，有助于中国在增长方面减轻对低成本制造、出口和投资的依赖。

　　位于香港的维权集团中国劳工通讯(China Labour Bulletin)的杰弗里•克罗塞尔(Geoffrey Crothall)表示，加薪也许不足以缓解广东省的劳动力短缺。从手机到运动鞋，广东省在许多产品的全球生产中占据了相当大的比重。

　　面对不断上升的通胀，北京方面过去一年已7次上调银行存款准备金率，并在第四季度两次加息。这些措施旨在收敛宽松的货币政策条件，但仅在一定程度上取得了成功。

　　为了避开收紧后的放贷指标，中国各银行去年将上万亿元人民币的贷款转出自己的资产负债表，将其重新打包成理财产品。

　　周四，中国银监会责令各银行今年将估计为1.66万亿元人民币(合2520亿美元)的表外放贷转回表内。旨在管理流动性的政府努力，还因非银行放贷变得更为复杂，政府在量化非银行放贷方面遇到极大困难。

　　根据中国央行的一项调查，去年非银行放贷达到大约2400亿元人民币，相当于总放贷额的5.6%。但央行官员对英国《金融时报》表示，非正式和地下放贷的真实规模可能要大得多。