China's business press carried the following stories on Monday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Think tank: China's economy to expand 10.6% in Q4 -- Shanghai Securities News

China's economy is expected to grow by 10.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter this year, a major government think tank said in its latest forecast report.

According to Lang Run Forecast, a report released by the China Center for Economic Research, China's consumer price index (CPI) will rise by 0.5 percent in Q4.

The Lang Run Forecast's result comes from the weighted average of projections from 21 institutions, including CCER, Morgan Stanley, Economic Forecast Department of the State Information Center, China International Capital Corp., Citigroup, CITIC Securities, HSBC and UBS Securities.

Of the 21 institutions, 19 predict an economic growth rate higher than 10 percent for the fourth quarter. Among those, Morgan Stanley holds the most optimistic predictions of 11.6 percent.

Sinopec discovers Asia's largest gas field in Chongqing -- National Business Daily

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) announced that it discovered a giant gas field while detecting a 340-sqaure-kilometer area in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

According to Sinopec's preliminary estimates, the gas field holds about 120 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

China's grain output to increase slightly this year -- Caijing Magazine

China's grain output is expected to increase slightly in 2009 compared to last year, a research institute said in a report over the weekend. According to the report, it will be the first time China will have had growing grain output for six consecutive years since 1949.

The Research Center for Rural Economy, a think tank under the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that China's planting area of autumn grain reached 75.3 million hectares in 2009, up 1.2 percent year-on-year.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced earlier this month that the summer grain output had increased for six years in a row.

China's inflation rate to stand at 2.5% in 2010 -- China Securities Journal

China's inflation rate is expected to be around 2.5 percent in 2010, and the country is most likely to conduct interest rate hikes in the second half of that year, said Wang Qing, chief economist of Morgan Stanley Greater China.

According to Wang, China's economic growth may reach 10 percent next year and the increase rate of new loans may go back to the level of 17 or 18 percent.

Wang noted that the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, will not raise interest rates until the latter half of 2010. He also said that the central bank will hike the reserve requirement rate before raising interest rates.