China’s full-year growth for 2006, figures, which were released on Thursday, has outstripped expectations, with gross domestic product expanding by 10.7 per cent, the fastest annual rise in more than a decade.

The new figure means that China has recorded double-digit economic growth for four consecutive years. It also means that if – as many expect – it records a similar pace of growth this year, China’s economy could as early as 2008 leapfrog that of Germany’s to make it the world’s third largest in absolute terms.