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The growth rate of China's economy isexpected to lower to 6.7％next year，saidMorgan Stanley ecnomist StephenRpach recently at Beijing University.

The growth rate of China's economyis expected to lower to 6.7% next year，said Morgan Stanley economist StephenRoach recently at Beijing University.

\"Although the estimation may be tooconservative， the downward trend ofChina's economic growth is certain tocome，\" he said.

Many Chinese and overseas econo-mists have reached consensus on the up-coming slowdown of China's economicgrowth.

In the past few years， the rocketingexport has become a robust driving forceof China's economy， but in the nearfuture， due to increasing trade disputesand international trade protectionism， thecountry will not be able to maintain ahigh-speed export growth.

Besides， China's macro-control poli-cies have successfully decelerated thecountry's overheated investment growth，so economists believe the economy willenter a new stage characterized by stablerather than high-speed growth.

In 2003 and 2004， China's annualeconomic growth rate was 9.5%， and inthe first three quarters this year， the fig-ure was 9.4%.

The National Bureau of Statistics ex-pected Chinese economy to grow at anrate between 8.7% to 9.2% next year， andin the next five years， the country'seconomy is expected to rise at an aver-age rate of 8%.

Since China started its reform andopening-up policy more than 20 yearsago， its economy has \"overheated\" or\"overcooled\" several times.

After some years of rapid economicgrowth of more than 9%， China is tryingto restructure its economy by puttingmore emphasis on quality， rather thanquantity.

Economists agree that the Chineseeconomy now faces two major problems，namely excessive dependence upon itsexports and oversupply in some industriesdue to excessive investment.

The restructure policy will cool down China's booming economy， but it is un-likely for the economy to slump in thenear future， because both exports and in-vestment will maintain moderate growth，and the government will make more ef-forts to stimulate domestic consumption.

2006 may be a starting point for thecountry to overhaul its economy through discouraging overheated investment andstimulating consumption， said WangXiaoguang， a researcher with the StateDevelopment and Reform Commission.

The seasonal adjustment of the Chi-nese economy is not equal to economicrecession in western countries， Wang said.The Chinese economy will continue torise next year， with a growth rate slow-ing down to a moderate level， he said.

According to China's next five-yearplan， the per capita gross domestic prod-uct in 2010 is expected to double fromthat in 2000， which means China has tomaintain its annual economic growthabove 7.5%.

The Chinese government， havingadopted the concept of sustainabledevelopment， is now paying more atten-tion to quality and efficiency in economicdevelopment， and regards stable and bal-anced growth as ideal.