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China has retained double-digit growth for the first half of this year, albeit at a slower rate, in the face of world economic fluctuations and domestic natural disasters.

China's Gross Domestic Product totaled 13 trillion yuan, up by 10.4% year on year, said National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Li Xiaochao at Thursday's press conference. The conference covered China's economy in the first half of 2008.

With tightening macro-policies and weakening exports in the past six months, GDP growth has dropped by 1.8% compared with the same period of last year. Consumer prices have fallen, and deposits increased significantly as both the real estate and stock markets tumbled.

In view of fluctuations in the world economy, slower exports, and natural disasters that struck China since the beginning of the year, Li described the growth as "hard-won".

Though slowing down, China' economy had been moving toward what policymakers had expected, Li said, adding a smaller growth rate was in line with the government's goal to prevent the economy from overheating.

In response to concern about possible economic depression after the Beijing Olympics, Li said based on the experience of previous hosts, relatively larger economies are less impacted by the Olympics.

There was enough space for China to adjust itself after the Games as the Chinese economy still enjoyed stable growth, a large scale, and an integrated economic structure, Li added.  

However, despite the economy's cooling down, Chinese economist Xia Bin cautioned companies and individuals against unrealistic hopes for looser monetary policies. He said so at the Chinese Economists 50 Forum held on July 15.

It was appropriate to control this year's GDP growth between 9% and 10% and CPI between 6% and 8%, Xia said.

To achieve this, he believed macro-controls in the next period should focus on "tightening credit, stabilizing foreign exchanges, adjusting prices, easing fiscal polices, and subsidizing the poor".