Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday that China is still the largest developing country in the world.

"We need to make long and hard efforts if we are to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieve modernization," he said.

Hu made the remarks in a written interview with both the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post before his upcoming state visit to the United States, due to kick off on Jan. 18.

Hu said the Eleventh Five-Year Program period was a truly eventful one in the course of China's development.

Facing the complex changes at home and abroad and the major risks and challenges, China adhered to the Scientific Outlook on Development,strengthened and improved macro-regulation and gave full play to the basic role of market in resources allocation, he said.

China also took proactive steps to curb the unstable and unhealthy factors in the economic operation, and maintained steady and relatively fast growth of the national economy and social stability and harmony, he added.

"We continued to put people's interests first and paid more attention to developing social programs and improving people's livelihood," he said.

Hu said the per capita incomes of urban and rural residents are estimated to have risen at an average annual rate of over 9.3 percent and around 8 percent respectively in the past five years.

Population below poverty line in the rural areas was noticeably reduced. Education, social security, health care and other social programs developed more rapidly, he said.

In response to a question on China's inflation risk, Hu said the rise of the overall price level has a very strong structural feature, yet it is on the whole moderate and controllable.

There is a basic balance between total supply and total demand, and the material basis is strong enough to maintain market supply and stabilize the overall price level, he said

"We have the confidence, conditions and ability to stabilize the overall price level," he said.