The Ministry of Commerce also reiterated the government's forecasts for foreign trade to rise 20 percent to one trillion dollars this year compared with 851.21 billion dollars in 2003.

Full-year retail sales are forecast to grow by over 10 percent year-on-year to five trillion yuan (603 billion dollars) compared with 4.58 trillion in 2003, Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou said in a statement.

Although retail sales were expected to pick up this year from last year's growth rate of 9.1 percent, slowing consumption was a problem for the commercial sector, Yu said.

Yu claimed that frequent trade restrictions against China were hurting commerce and "resulting in unfair treatment for Chinese enterprises in the international market place".

High global oil prices and growing stockpiles of some commodities were also impacting the Chinese economy.

"Domestic tensions arising from the short supply of coal, electricity, oil and transportation haven't been fundamentally eased, which has lifted the production and operation costs of China's export enterprises," he said.

The ministry said it would still try to expand consumption and pledged to continue to implement China's World Trade Organisation accession commitments to improve the use of and maintain stable growth in foreign investment.

Overseas investment this year is expected to exceed two billion dollars.