China's economy is forecast to grow more than 9 percent next year on the growth of domestic consumption and improving exports, said a report released Friday by the Beijing-based Renmin University of China.
The country's retail sales are predicted to increase 18.2 percent year on year in 2010, boosted by domestic consumption and income growth, according to the report.
China's retail sales in October rose 16.2 percent year on year to 1.17 trillion yuan (171.3 billion U.S. dollars), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The world economy would be on the revival track next year, but a solid recovery was not an easy task, said Liu Yuanchun, vice president of the School of Economics of the university and the compiler of the report.
Liu predicted that China's exports would rise 13.3 percent and imports 12.2 percent in 2010.
China's exports dropped 13.8 percent year on year to 110.8 billion U.S. dollars last month, the smallest decrease in 10 months, while imports stood at 86.8 billion U.S. dollars, down 6.4percent from a year earlier.
He urged the government to step up efforts on low-rent apartment construction next year for urban dwellers.
The affordable housing program, approved in June, is aimed at providing accommodation for 7.47 million low-income urban households from 2009 to 2011.
The report predicted that the world's third largest economy would expand by 8.56 percent this year.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.7 percent year on year in the first three quarters, largely due to the massive stimulus package unveiled in November 2008.
The country's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, would dip 0.7 percent this year, according to the report.
China's CPI fell 0.5 percent year on year in October, said the NBS.
Other leading economists have also voiced optimism on China's economic prospects.
Fan Gang, director of the Beijing-based National Economic Research Institute of China Reform Foundation, predicted Thursday in Hong Kong that the Chinese economy could grow between 8 and 9 percent in 2010.
However, Fan warned that emerging markets were facing a risk of possible asset bubbles given the international excessive liquidity.
Qiao Hong, a China economist at Goldman Sachs, forecast last week in Beijing that China's economy would expand 11.9 percent year on year in 2010.