The Wall Street Journal journalist was asking questions at the press conference.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) will investigate the leaking of second quarter economic data before it was supposed to be published Thursday, Li Xiaochao, NBS spokesman, said Thursday at a press conference.

China's economy grew by 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the Beijing Times reported yesterday, citing an unnamed official who revealed the figures on a Beijing-based forum.

Similar rumors of a 7.1 percent pace of growth for the first half circulated in local financial markets on Wednesday.

The economic data, which was seen as confidential, was due to be released at 10 am yesterday at the press conference.

"I read the news before I attended the press conference. We paid close attention to the impact of releasing the data in advance," Li said.

The same thing happened last year, when Reuters said on July 8 that China's annual consumer price inflation eased to 7.1 percent that June, from 7.7 percent in May, citing two government sources. The leak came 10 days before the official data was supposed to be published.

"We will investigate the case according to certain rules and procedures," Li told a Reuters journalist.

The reporter questioned whether the leaking of such figures broke China's secrecy law, referring to the case of Rio Tinto employees getting access to confidential figures.

(China Daily July 17, 2009)