China's CPI (consumer price index) will rise slightly over the next six months, following adjustments to the price of water, electricity, refined oil and other items, according to a survey published by the Caijing Magazine on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by the China Economic Situation Monitoring Center of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), sought the views of 76 macro economic experts regarding the prospects for China's economy in the July-December period.

Survey results show that 60 percent of the economists believe the CPI will rise slightly in the next six months and 37 percent think it will stay stable. The other 3 percent think it will decline.

In April, May and June this year, China's CPI growth was 1.2 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, suggesting that inflation is accelerating.

As for the international oil price, 55 percent of the experts figure it will rise slightly in the second half of the year, and 29 percent believe the price will stay at its current level. Only 16 percent think it will fall.

Three quarters of the surveyed economists are betting that real estate prices will continue to climb or at least maintain current levels, and 25 percent believe that real estate prices will decline.

57 percent of the surveyed experts think that the Chinese economy will grow at 10 percent or more in 2006. The other 43 percent take a slightly less enthusiastic view, believing that annual growth will dip below 10 percent.

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),China's economy surged 10.9 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2006.

Source: Xinhua