China's industrial production climbed 17.4 percent in April as exports and retail sales accelerated in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

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That was close to the 17.5 percent median estimate of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The National Bureau of Statistics released the figure today. Industrial production climbed 17.6 percent in March.

Premier Wen Jiabao is concerned a record trade surplus and a stock market boom will fuel excessive spending on factories, leading to overcapacity, falling prices and bad loans. Fixed- asset investment in urban areas probably jumped 25.3 percent in the first four months from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

"Strong industrial production figures may suggest that fixed-asset investment is picking up and that's not what the government wants," said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. "We can expect another interest rate increase and more bank reserve ratio hikes if investment takes off again."

For the first four months, industrial output rose 18 percent from the same period last year. Growth for all of 2006 was 16.6 percent.

The government will release fixed-asset investment figures at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Spending on factories and property rose 29.6 percent in the first four months of last year. It slowed to 24.5 percent for 2006 as a whole.

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