China is confident and capable of maintaining a stable financial market amid world industry turmoil, a central bank official has said.

The overall operation of China's financial market is stable while the banking system has relatively abundant liquidity, said Su Ning, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, at a forum in Shanghai on Saturday.

The turbulence on the international market aggravated risks faced by China's financial sector, but a vast domestic market and internal economic vitality would empower the country to tackle various challenges, said Su.

He noted domestic consumption has contributed more to economic growth than before, while natural disasters and global economic troubles have not changed the fundamentals of the world's fastest expanding economy.

Official figures show in the first eight months, China's retail sales of consumer goods surged 21.9 percent year on year.

The central bank reduced the benchmark credit interest rate for the first time since October 2004 on Tuesday, a long-expected move to deal with economic slowdown.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2008)