China's inflation shows slight rise in Nov (3)

Lian Ping, chief economist with the Bank of Communication, said that December and first-quarter inflation can be higher.

China's PPI, a gauge of inflation of production materials, dropped 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, marking the ninth straight month of decline and showing the lingering risk of an industrial slowdown.

Qu said that even though inflation is rising, it will be on a more modest scale than in 2009.

"With a benign inflationary outlook, we expect the central bank to keep interest rates unchanged in 2013 as growth bottoms out," he said.

Liu Ligang, the chief China economist with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, forecast China's whole-year inflation to be around 2.7 percent in 2012, much lower than the government's target of 4 percent.

But the government needs to act cautiously in 2013 because infrastructure projects have been accelerating since May and may lead inflation to go up to a dangerous level in the second half of the year, Liu said.

"I believe that the policy makers will make due preparations for dealing with that situation at the coming Central Economic Work Conference," he said.

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