China's economic outlook is positive, but it must keep battling inflation and be ready to counteract any external shocks, the country's top central banker said on Saturday.

People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said China should prevent rapid growth from overheating what many viewed as the world's leading economic engine, and called on Europe to aggressively deal with the region's worsening debt crisis.

It would be unrealistic for anyone to hope China could dramatically accelerate its growth rate, and such a rate would not be sustainable, Zhou said at a press conference during this week's meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

"The reasonable expectation probably should be somewhere around 8 percent or 10 percent," he said.

China's economy grew at an annual rate of 9.5 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2009, but still faster than economists had expected.

Asked how he viewed the European debt crisis, Zhou said "We have to see if the euro zone countries can implement the decisions taken on July 21" before China can decide its response.