China confident of achieving annual growth target, more policies in pipeline

BEIJING -- China is confident of achieving the full-year growth target, while mulling new supporting policies to sustain steady and healthy economic growth, the country's top economic planner said Tuesday.

The market sentiment has improved recently with a pick-up of the purchasing managers' index in the manufacturing sector, a warming stock market and a vital consumption market during the National Day holiday following the implementation of existing policies and incremental policies unveiled recently, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference.

In addition, the fundamentals of China's economic development have not changed, and favorable conditions such as huge market potential and strong economic resilience have not changed, said Zheng.

China's financial authorities announced a broader-than-expected policy package last month to stimulate economic recovery. These policy measures include reducing the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for banks and mortgage rates for existing homes, as well as introducing new monetary programs to boost the capital market, among other initiatives.

A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held on Sept. 26 called for stepping up efforts to roll out incremental policies as the country strives to accomplish its annual economic and social development targets.

The recently unveiled package of incremental policies was designed to strengthen counter-cyclical macro policy adjustment, expand effective domestic demand, increase efforts to help enterprises, stabilize the real estate market and boost the capital market, Zheng said.

He said the incremental policies focus on improving the quality of economic development, supporting the healthy development of the real economy and business entities, and balancing high-quality development with high-level security.

Elaborating on the implementation of the incremental policies, Zheng said counter-cyclical adjustment in macro policies has been intensified, with RRR and interest rate cuts already in place.

He called for speeding up fiscal spending to bolster the economy and providing stronger support for local governments to conduct debt replacement and defuse debt risks.

A raft of reform measures conducive to economic development will be rolled out, he said. These reforms include the formation of guidelines on building a unified national market, a new negative list for market access and mechanisms to ensure increased investment in future industries.

China will expand the catalogue of industries that encourage foreign investment, unveil a new group of major foreign-invested projects and make its visa-free transit policies more open, according to Zheng.

The incremental policies also aim to boost domestic consumption and investment demand, he noted.

The country's consumer goods trade-in program has been fully activated, with passenger car sales rebounding sharply and electrical home appliance sales returning to growth. Related policies will be further advanced to fuel sustained increases in commodity consumption, Zheng said.

On the investment front, ultra-long special treasury bonds will continue to be issued next year with optimized investment areas to implement major national strategies and build up security capacity in key areas, he noted.

Investment projects worth 200 billion yuan (about 14.14 billion U.S. dollars) that are in next year's plans will be released in advance this year to support local governments in accelerating the preliminary work and construction, Zheng told reporters.

A certain proportion of these projects will involve urban renewal, mainly in the construction of pipelines for gas, water, sewage and heating, which is expected to generate investment demand of around 4 trillion yuan in the coming five years, said NDRC deputy head Liu Sushe at the press conference.

While policies conducive to the production, operation and sound development of enterprises will not stop or be reduced, measures to prop up the real estate and capital markets are being planned or advanced, according to Zheng.

He said China will study new policies in a timely manner to promote steady growth, structural improvement and sustained development of the economy.

The NDRC will closely follow changes of the economic situation, evaluate the effects of policy implementation, and conduct preliminary research on more supportive policies and maintain policy options, said Zheng.

The Chinese economy was able to maintain overall stable growth, with progress made in the first three quarters, said Zhao Chenxin, deputy head of the NDRC, at the press conference.

With the effect of incremental policies gradually emerging, China's economic vitality will be further unleashed, market confidence will be further strengthened, and the foundation for the high-quality development and stable economic operation will be further consolidated, said Zhao.