Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday that inflation prevention would be an important task next year.

He said preventing inflation would ensure a stable environment for economic development and protect the interests of the people, as maintaining stable and rapid economic growth was a top economic priority next year.

"China is not facing an inflation issue at the moment..., but we should foresee such a possibility and maintain consumer prices at a reasonable range, especially in a country with imbalanced income distribution and a widening income gap," he told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Consumer price hikes could futher burden medium and low-income families, though it might mean nothing to those better off, he said.

Wen said signs of possible inflation had been under close watch, including rising international commodity prices, the credit boom and a lower comparison basis next year.

Concerns over possible inflation had been fueled by rising consumer prices and utility costs. China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, resumed its growth in November after nine months of decline, rising 0.6 percent year on year.

A credit boom along with a loose monetary policy and positive fiscal policy this year had contributed to rising prices, with a total of 9.21 trillion yuan (1.35 trillion U.S.dollars) pumped into China's economy in the first 11 months of the year.