The World Bank (WB) further cut its forecast for China's 2008 economic growth to 9.4 percent in a report released on Tuesday, after an earlier cut to 9.6 percent in February.

Louis Kuijs, senior economist of World Bank's Beijing office, said the adjustment was made purely out of concerns over external factors of Chinese economy.

The world economy was slowing down more rapidly in the past two months, which also had a negative impact on the growth of Chinese exports, Louis explained.

The bank also attributed its previous cut of China forecast in February to slowing external demand.

In the meantime, Louis said he was still optimistic about the domestic performance of Chinese economy, being confident of expected powerful investment and robust consumption domestically.

The latest WB report said despite falling U.S. import growth and rising volatility in global financial markets, China is expected to continue to perform strongly on rising domestic investment and consumption growth.

China's economy expanded by 11.4 percent in the whole of 2007, the highest in 13 years, also the fifth year of double digit growth.

The report, released under the name of East Asia and Pacific Update, is a six-month review of the region's economies by the World Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2008 )