BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- China's economic growth is likely to remain robust, the World Bank reported Tuesday. However the costs of keeping policy expansionary will increase over time. Large fiscal and monetary stimulus has supported a recovery in China's economy, according to the World Bank's latest China Quarterly Update.

    The regular assessment of the Chinese economy finds that falling exports amidst the global recession have been a major drag on growth.

    Nonetheless, real GDP growth rose to 8.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter on the back of the stimulus. Most of the stimulus has shown up in infrastructure-oriented government-led investment. But some has been consumption-oriented and domestic demand growth has been broad based.

    According to the World Bank's report resurgent housing sales have started to feed through to construction activity. Investment in manufacturing has been affected by spare capacity, but consumption has held up well, it says.

    The strong domestic demand has buoyed import volumes and the current account surplus may fall to 5.5 percent of GDP this year even with import prices down sharply. On the labor market, the report says there has been some shedding of jobs in export oriented manufacturing, but that there has been new job creation in other sectors.

    (Agencies)