BEIJING - China's annual GDP growth is expected to reach 9.2 percent this year and continues to experience a moderate cooling in 2012, a senior official said on Thursday.

Expansion of the country's industrial production in 2012 will also witness a growth pace that is one or two percentage points lower compared with this year, Huang Libin, an official?at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a press conference.

Huang expected the country's industrial value-added output to rise by around 14 percent year-on-year this year.

Growth of exports, one of the major engines for the world's second largest economy, may slow further next year amid sovereign-debt morass in other countries, rising protectionism and increasing pressure for the yuan to appreciate, he said.

"Although the current moderation is in line with the country's macro-economic regulations, the trend of an acceleration in the slowdown should be monitored," he said.

He noted that one of the government's tasks next year should be to prevent major economic fluctuations caused by increasing uncertainties both at home and abroad.

Huang also said the timing and strength of regulations should be better tailored to prevent them having an accumulated impact on economic growth.

To stem rising consumer prices, China has implemented a prudent monetary policy, which Huang said will unlikely see any notable loosening next year.

The country's GDP growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter of this year, from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first quarter. Its GDP grew 10.4 percent year-on-year in 2010.