The specter of runaway inflation in China is a topic of increasing debate, and countless Chinese leaders have in recent months stressed the need for controls to prevent general price increases. The Chinese economy is expected to grow at a rate of around 10 percent in 2010, and the banking system continues to support government stimulus policy with massive lending. While consumer prices in 2009 were negative overall, January 2010 statistics showed that consumer prices grew by 1.5 percent compared to the same month in 2009, underscoring inflation expectations. However, for a developing economy, China has low inflation rates. The annual average change in its consumer price index (CPI) has rarely risen above 5 percent since the late 1990s, a rate that many developing states — to say nothing of one developing as rapidly as China — find enviable. In fact, the Chinese economy often shows deflationary tendencies.