By Glenys Sim March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Silver and platinum dropped from seven-week highs after China’s inflation and industrial output accelerated, adding pressure on the government to pare stimulus measures. Gold was little changed. Silver for immediate delivery lost as much as 1.2 percent to $16.8150 an ounce and was at $16.9350 at 3:02 p.m. Singapore time, while platinum dropped as much as 0.8 percent. Consumer prices in China rose 2.7 percent in February from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said today, compared with the 2.5 percent median estimate of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Silver prices reached $17.6525 an ounce, while platinum gained to $1,610.75 an ounce yesterday, the highest levels for both metals since Jan. 21, on optimism industrial demand will increase as the global economic recovery gains momentum. “Unlike gold, silver, platinum and palladium have industrial uses so they are affected by economic growth,” said Zhu Lv, research manager at Shanghai Tonglian Futures Co. “Any signs of a possible slowdown in China will have an effect on prices of these metals.” China’s industrial production climbed 20.7 percent in the first two months of 2010, the most in more than five years. Central bank data showed today that banks in China extended 700 billion yuan ($103 billion) of new loans in February, compared with 1.39 trillion yuan in the previous month and 1.07 trillion yuan a year earlier. The median estimate was 600 billion yuan. Immediate-delivery gold was little changed at $1,107.50 an ounce, while palladium dropped 1.8 percent to $456 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

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