China's annual gross domestic product growth for the second quarter will probably accelerate to close to eight per cent from 6.1 per cent in the first three months, a government statistician said.

Guo Tongxin, writing in China Information News, said he based his projection on figures already published for April and May.

"Generally, whether it's in terms of GDP, industrial production growth or steel output, power production and other hard data, unless there are major surprises we can basically adjudge that at present the national economy has touched bottom and the most difficult period is already past," he wrote.

"So in the next stage the economy can look forward to stabilisation and improvement," said the NBS official.

Guo estimated that, between the first and second quarters, GDP grew by more than two per cent, up from 1.5 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Su Ning, a Vice-Governor of the People's Bank of China, also described the economy as being in a stabilising phase but cautioned that a pick-up was still not firmly anchored.

Guo said one problem was that China was suffering from weak demand.

He said the authorities should stick to their active fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary stance to boost domestic spending and stabilise exports.

Guo singled out rising inflationary expectations as a potential risk as fast credit growth was driving up raw material costs at home and abroad. (Reuters)