China’s inflation rate is likely to reach 5.5% for 2011 while its economy will grow 9.4% this year, MarketWatch reported, quoting a prominent economist with a Chinese government think tank. Both figures are likely to decline in 2012, with inflation dipping to around 4% and the economy growing 8.7%, said Fan Jianping, the chief economist at the state information center of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner. Speaking at a forum in Beijing on Saturday, Fan said that rampant inflation and rising local government debt left China with little room to launch a large-scale stimulus to bolster its economy as it did in 2008. “Any new economic stimulus by large government spending may lead to vicious inflation which could be as high as double digits,” he said. China’s economy grew 9.6% in the first half of the year, while inflation has steadily slowed from 6.5% in July, the highest level in more than three years, to 6.1% in September.