Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday called for more support for farmers and post-quake reconstruction during his visit to a rural credit cooperative in Minxian county, Northwest China's Gansu province.
Li: GDP won't grow as quickly, but it will be more sustainable
Premier Li Keqiang said China will seek a "golden mean" between GDP growth and reform.
Li made the comments at a meeting with economists and corporate leaders in Beijing to solicit their views on economic development.
The premier said China must keep up a reasonable and considerable rate of growth, although it is admittedly unrealistic to expect the near double-digit growth rate to continue. A certain degree of growth is needed, Li said, "to generate new opportunities for the job market, to make ample room for raising the quality and efficiency of the economic structure, and to allow for the economy to progress on a steady and sustainable course". Without support from a certain speed of growth, it would be hard for a nation of 1.3 billion people to find solutions to many of its difficulties and problems, he said. However, as economists and corporate leaders said at the meeting, the speed of growth is not going to be achieved through short-term monetary stimulus, but innovative macroeconomic stewardship, and new attempts to adapt to changes in the market at the corporate level.
Growth is to be achieved through reform, Li said. "There is plenty of room to promote reforms. Without reforms, there's no way out." Economists and corporate leaders from industries ranging from shipbuilding and auto manufacturing to e-commerce shared their views about the economy at the cabinet's third forum to solicit opinion since it assumed office in March. They agreed that the market environment, both global and domestic, would remain complicated in 2014. The meeting was held amid speculation that the recovery of the Chinese economy could still be unstable and concern that despite its good performance in the second half of 2013 there could be a new slowdown next year. Opinions among economists were split. Some say China would try to maintain its GDP growth momentum and set the growth target at 7.5 percent again, while others say 7 percent seemed reasonable.Now, by emphasizing the need for meeting job market demand, Li seems to prefer to see the economy continue to grow at 7.5 percent, some Beijing-based analysts said.
However, the economy's 2014 growth target will not be finalized and released to the public until it is approved by the National People's Congress annual session scheduled for March. "We have to build up a consensus and offer the market an expectation of long-term stability," Li said at the meeting.