China’s economic fundamentals remain sound: official
By Lu Yanan from People’s Daily
China’s economic fundamentals sustaining sound development remain unchanged, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission told the People’s Daily in a recent interview, adding that China is confident, able, and conditioned to realize the expectation on the yearly economic and social development.
Ning, also head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said so when elaborating on China’s economic status and how China will realize its annual economic tasks when facing with new challenges.
His statement also came after the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened a symposium recently to analyze the current economic trend and plan for the development in the second half of 2018.
According to the symposium, China’s economy maintained stable operation with changes, and is facing new challenges amid the changing external environment. The Political Bureau urged the country to identify the major contradictions and make targeted measures to address them.
When asked about the slowdown, or even consecutive drop in the growth of some economic indexes since the second quarter, Ning responded that part of the economic indexes saw fluctuations this July, including investment growth and consumption growth, but China’s economy is still running within a reasonable range.
“However, given the new situation where the economy maintained stable operation with changes, we must attach more importance to such fluctuations to prevent the temporary changes from developing into a downward trend,” he pointed out, adding that this is also the background for the Political Bureau meeting to plan the economy for the second half year, and its new demand to maintain steady growth.
The CPC Central Committee has made targeted measures to prevent drastic fluctuations of economic indexes and cope with the downward pressure revealed by some figures, according to the official.
The country will, first of all, maintain stable and healthy economic development, stick to positive fiscal policies and prudent monetary policies, make its policies more forward-thinking, flexible and effective, and stabilize employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign capital, investment and expectation, he elaborated.
China will take making up short boards as a priority in deepening the supply-side structural reform, said Ning, noting at the same time that there are still many fields that China needs to get better at, such as improving infrastructure in ecological and environmental protection and livelihood.
Ning added that the world’s second largest economy will also give a bigger role of finance in the development of real economy. It will better combine this role with the prevention and dissolving of financial risks, so as to create a more favorable financing environment for real economy and make financing easier and cheaper.
The country is about to keep promoting reform and opening up and continue to deepen the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers and improving administration, the reform of state owned enterprises, and the reform of the financial sector. The opening efforts will be further enhanced for greater effects.
China will stay resolute to solve issues in the property market, as it will tailor different policies for different cities, facilitate the balance between supply and demand, and accelerate the building of a long-term mechanism that promotes stable and healthy development of the real estate market.
The country will keep guaranteeing and improving people’s livelihood, he said, adding that more efforts will be made to stabilize employment, and ensure adequate spending on salaries, education, and social security.
“The government work report issued earlier this year has made detailed deployment for improving livelihood, and the deployment must be fully implemented. The country should take concrete measures and make practical achievements to enhance people’s sense of gain,” he stressed.
These are major tasks for China to cope with the changes while maintaining stable development, and keep economic stability with a good momentum for growth, the official concluded.
China’s economic fundamentals sustaining sound development remain unchanged, and on the supply side, China’s comparative advantages in productive factors remain unchanged, Ning underlined when asked about China’s potential to maintain steady growth and complete annual tasks.
The labor resource is still its largest advantage, he elaborated, explaining that China has a labor force of over 900 million people, and 700 million of them are currently employed, over 170 million of whom have received higher education or acquired professional skills.
“In addition, China sees 8 million college graduates each year. It brings pressure to employment, but is a treasury as well. We are totally capable of turning demographic dividend into talent dividend,” said Ning.
In addition, China holds advantage in capital. “Our capital has grown from inadequate to sufficient, and we have enough capital in finance, industries, and infrastructure,” the official told the People’s Daily.
“We hold advantage in the area of territory. As a broad country with vast regional differences, China possesses huge potential in the intensive exploitation of land that many countries cannot compare,” he added.
China, in Ning’s opinion, has other advantages that are emerging. With the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, the rapidly growing industries of information and technology are building new advantages for competitiveness. These are not only short-term but also long-term advantages.
China is a market with 1.4 billion population and the largest group of middle-income earners, and it is going through a major consumption upgrading. All these create huge resilience and inner power for the stability of China’s economy.
Besides, China has sufficient macroeconomic policy instruments. The debt ratio of the Chinese government is at a low level in the global context, and the country still enjoys a large space for macro-control thanks to its rejection to the scattergun approach in recent years, according to him.
Ning added that China has gained rich experience in macro-control, especially in the past 40 years of reform and opening up.
The so-called “China threat” rhetoric fanned up in the international community is groundless, and so is the “collapse” of China, he stressed.
“Faced with the changes in stable development, we will take targeted measures and policies, and we are completely capable of overcoming all the difficulties,” Ning concluded at last.
中国经济长期向好的基本面没有变
人民日报记者 陆娅楠
日前中共中央政治局召开会议，分析研究当前经济形势，部署下半年经济工作。会议指出，当前经济运行稳中有变，面临一些新问题新挑战，外部环境发生明显变化。要抓住主要矛盾，采取针对性强的措施加以解决。
如何理解当前经济运行稳中有变？面对新问题新挑战，中国经济如何实现年度预期目标？国家发改委副主任、国家统计局局长宁吉喆日前接受记者采访，回应相关问题。
记者：我们看到，二季度以来，不少经济指标出现了增速放缓，有的甚至出现了持续下滑的情况，您怎么看待这一变化？我们该如何应对？
宁吉喆：7月部分经济指标有所波动，例如投资增速、消费增速，但是总的看，经济运行还是保持在合理区间。但是，在稳中有变的新形势下，我们要更加重视这些指标的波动，防止短期波动转化为下行态势。这也是中共中央政治局会议部署下半年经济工作，就保持经济总体平稳、稳中向好提出新要求的背景。
防止指标大幅波动、应对一些指标出现的下行压力，中央提出了有针对性的措施。
一是保持经济平稳健康发展，坚持实施积极的财政政策和稳健的货币政策，切实增强政策的前瞻性、灵活性和有效性，深入扎实有效地做好“六个稳”（稳就业、稳金融、稳外贸、稳外资、稳投资、稳预期）。
二是把补短板作为当前深化供给侧结构性改革的重点任务。因为我们发展中还有很多短板，生态环保、民生领域还有很多基础设施要加大补短板的力度。
三是让金融更好服务实体经济。要把防范化解金融风险和服务实体经济更好地结合起来，使实体经济发展有更好的融资环境，缓解融资难、融资贵的问题。
四是继续推进改革开放，持续深化“放管服”改革、国有企业改革、财政金融领域改革。开放也要进一步加大力度，落到实处，看到实效。
五是下决心解决好房地产的问题，坚持因城施策，促进供求平衡，加快建立促进房地产市场平稳健康发展的长效机制。
六是保障和改善民生。把稳定就业放在更加突出的位置，同时确保工资、教育、社保等基本的民生支出。改善民生，今年年初《政府工作报告》有具体部署，关键是要落实到位，以实实在在的举措和成效不断增强人民群众的获得感。
这六点是下半年应对稳中有变的新形势，保持经济稳中有进、稳中向好的重点任务。
记者：您认为中国经济保持稳中有进，我们的潜力在哪里？是否能完成年度预期目标？
宁吉喆：中国经济长期向好的基本面没有变。从供给看，我们生产要素综合比较优势没有改变。
一是劳动资源的优势仍是我们最大的优势。我们有9亿多劳动力资源，7亿多劳动就业者，其中超过1.7亿是受过高等教育或拥有专业技能的人才，还有每年800多万的大学生毕业，这既是就业的压力，但也是宝贵的财富。我们完全有能力把人口红利转变为人才红利。
二是资本优势。我们的资金从短缺到宽裕，无论是金融资本，还是产业资本、基础设施资本都是比较充足的。
三是土地优势。我国地域面积广、区域差异大，集约用地潜力巨大，比很多国家的回旋余地都要大。
第四，我们还有新兴优势。随着创新驱动发展战略的实施，信息、科技等领域的新动能加速壮大，正迅速形成新的竞争优势，这不仅是短期优势，还是长期优势。
从需求看，我们有14亿人口的大市场，世界上最大规模的中等收入群体，大众消费升级态势明显，这些都为我国经济稳定运行提供了巨大的韧性和内生动力。
最后，宏观经济政策工具充足。我们政府财政负债率在国际上是比较低的，而且这些年没有搞“大水漫灌”，宏观调控的政策空间还很大。特别是改革开放40年来，宏观调控积累了丰富的经验。
国际上“中国威胁论”是没有根据的，“中国衰败论”也是没有根据的。在稳中有变的情况下，我们有针对性地采取措施，精准施策，完全有能力克服前进中的各种困难。我们有信心有能力有条件实现全年经济社会发展预期目标。
