The People's Bank of China said in a statement on Thursday that the nation's economy is enjoying stable and rapid growth, but that more needs to be done to prevent overheating in some sectors and to ward off inflation.

At its first quarterly meeting of the year, the central bank's monetary policy committee said the government would stick to its "prudent monetary policy."

The central government introduced macroeconomic measures last year to slow growth in a number of overheating sectors.

But striking a note of caution, the central bank warned that there still remains the possibility of a rebound in fixed asset investment. China's urban fixed asset investment grew 24.5 percent year-on-year during the first two months of this year, according to figures released earlier this month by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The central bank said earlier that it was targeting broad money supply (M2) growth of 15 percent this year, 2 percentage points lower than last year's target, in order to fuel healthier economic growth.

M2 grew 14.0 percent year-on-year in January, down slightly from December's 14.6 percent.

But the central bank also said that inflationary pressures had not fundamentally eased.

The consumer price index, policymakers' key barometer of inflation, rose 2.9 percent year-on-year during the first two months of 2005.

Economists believe upward pressure on consumer prices will remain as a result of increasing energy and raw material prices, as well as possible rises in labor costs. Local governments are also pushing to raise prices of public utilities.

(China Daily March 25, 2005)