The teams -- from the economic planning agency and statistics bureau -- made the visits in late March and were due to report recommended policy changes to the State Council, or Cabinet, this month, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday, citing unnamed officials.

The inspections were spurred by the country's latest economic data that has raised concerns of a resurgence in investment and a worsening trade imbalance.

In January and February, urban fixed asset investment rose 23.4 percent from the year-ago period, up from a 13.8 percent growth rate in December.

Meanwhile, China's trade surplus soared to US$39.7 billion in the first two months, more than triple the total during the year-earlier period.

"High investment growth in some central provinces are often associated with a rebound in such energy-intensive industries as steel, cement, coal and electrolytical aluminium," the report stated, citing an unnamed industry analyst.

The paper said senior officials visited Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Gansu provinces, among others, to check investment levels in high-polluting and energy-intensive industries.

Ma Kai, who heads the National Development and Reform Commission, led a team to Liaoning Province, with the aim of reviving manufacturing in the northeastern region, the report said.Other teams from the National Bureau of Statistics went to big exporting provinces in the coastal area, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, to check trade trends.

"Comparatively speaking, overly fast investment right now is not the most important problem. The most prominent problem currently is an excessive trade surplus due to overly rapid export growth," the report cited an unnamed official from the statistics bureau as saying.

China's official PMI index for March showed a manufacturing sector that was still robust despite recent economic tightening steps. The sub-index for new export orders surged.
The report said new macro-control measures wou

ld be announced after the State Council meeting.