Chinese leaders, meeting ahead of an agenda-setting conference, pledged on Monday to keep the country’s economic growth in a “reasonable range” in 2016 by expanding domestic demand and making supply-side improvements.
The pledge was reported by the official Xinhua news agency, which said the Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party that President Xi Jinping chairs, convened on Monday.
No numbers were reported for what leaders see as “reasonable”, but Monday’s meeting signals that the annual Central Economic Conference – at which policymakers are expected map out 2016 economic and reform plans and targets – should open soon.
In 2014, there was a Politburo meeting on Dec. 5, and the pivotal economic conference was held Dec. 9-11.
In reporting Monday’s Politburo meeting, Xinhua said without elaborating that macro-economic polices will be kept stable while micro-policies will be flexible.
“While appropriately expanding aggregate demand, more efforts will be made to improve the quality of efficiency of the supply system,” Xinhua said.
Premier Li Keqiang recently pledged to step up “supply-side” reforms to generate new growth engines in the economy while tackling factory overcapacity and so-called zombie firms.
