BEIJING (REUTERS) - China and the United States should take on the responsibility for ensuring steady global growth, a spokesman for China's statistics bureau said on Wednesday (March 14), amid intensifying bilateral trade friction.

Mr Mao Shenyong, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, also told reporters that China can achieve its 2018 growth target of around 6.5 per cent and that the country's exports will maintain a steady and relatively fast growth this year.

China's January-February industrial output and fixed-asset investment grew at a faster-than-expected rate, data published earlier on Wednesday showed.