China will stick to a loose monetary policy, Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated Thursday, despite mounting evidence the world's third largest economy has rebounded strongly from the global crisis.

"China's economic recovery trend has continued to consolidate but it still faces a few difficulties and problems," Wen told a forum here on the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai.

"We will continue to implement the active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy ... to facilitate the fast and steady growth of the Chinese economy," he said, according to a transcript of his speech posted on the Shanghai Expo's website.

Wen's remarks were consistent with those made by several senior officials recently and came a day after official data for October showed the economy was on track to exceed the government's eight percent growth target for 2009.

China's recovery from the global crisis has been driven by a four-trillion-yuan (S$812 billion) stimulus package unveiled last year and aggressive bank lending - sparking speculation Beijing would soon move to tighten policies.

The economy grew 8.9 percent on-year in the third quarter- the fastest pace in a year - after growing 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.1 percent in the first three months.

But Wen warned Beijing would finetune policies as needed, saying the government needed to "balance" the economy, "manage inflationary expectations" and "increase the flexibility and sustainability of the policies".