China stats bureau sees '06 GDP growth at 10.5 pct

BEIJING, Dec 28 (Reuters) China's gross domestic product growth for 2006 will probably come in at 10.5 percent, Yao Jingyuan, chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Thursday.

Yao also told a forum that he expected China's industrial output growth to be around 17 percent this year, while consumer inflation was likely to be around 1.3 to 1.4 percent.

Retail sales would probably grow by about 13 percent for the whole year, he said.

Annual GDP growth in the third quarter was 10.4 percent.

REUTERS CS PM1423