China posts 10.3% GDP growth in 2010, inflation slows

China’s economy grew at its fastest annual pace since the start of the financial crisis, hitting a growth rate of 10.3% in 2010, AFP reported. The full-year figure, up from a revised 9.2% growth in 2009, highlights China’s blistering performance in a year when it overtook Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the US.  The country’s GDP expanded by 9.8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, despite a series of tightening measures from Beijing to rein in rising consumer inflation. China’s consumer price index rose 4.6% year-on-year in December, down from 5.1% in November, which had been the fastest pace in more than two years.