China's economic growth rate is expected to be 6.6 percent in 2018, as revealed by the latest investigation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences or CASS, Yicai.com reported Tuesday.

About 55 percent of the economists surveyed believe the economic growth rate of the second quarter of this year will remain the same as the first quarter of 2018, according to the investigation published on the China Economist, a periodical from the Institute of Industrial Economics of CASS.

The predictions for the average growth rates of China's economy in 2018 are 6.6 percent from economists in eastern China, 6.7 percent from those in central China, and 6.5 percent from those in western China, with the average prediction nationwide being 6.6 percent, the report said.

About 55 percent of economists participating in the investigation believe commodity price levels will increase compared with the same period last year and 25 percent of them believe they will remain the same.

The China Economist commodity price index of the second quarter of this year is 135, 9 percentage points lower than last quarter, indicating that the increasing trend of commodity price levels will slow.

Meanwhile, about 70 percent of the economists believe the pressure of overcapacity will be relieved but it will still exist for a long time in the next decade, revealed by the investigation published Tuesday.

Economists believe the primary reason for the country's overcapacity is the lack of innovative abilities among manufacturers, while the second reason is government control.

Nearly 80 percent of the economists surveyed think the lack of innovation and advanced technology means production companies cannot manufacture products that meet diversified needs, which leads to an overcapacity of low-end products and shortage of high-end products.

About 88.3 percent of the economists believe that overcapacity should be reduced by the government's proper guidance and full usage of market mechanism effects.

Most of the economists believe the role government should play in overcapacity reduction ought to include setting standards for capacity withdrawal, guiding companies in upgrades and perfecting the legal system for enterprise bankruptcy.