Xi optimistic President Xi Jinping
President Xi Jinping

President Xi Jinping

BEIJING. — Despite downward growth pressure and recent financial market volatility, President Xi Jinping yesterday said the country’s long-term economic fundamentals remain sound.

Xi made the remarks at a symposium attended by ministers and provincial officials, adding that the new normal would be the major characteristic of the economy during the 13th Five-year Plan period (2016-2020), and a necessary course the economy must go through to realise higher, more balanced development.

Xi said that as the economy expands, the growth rate will moderate, thus, its structure must be adjusted while the engines of growth must be shifted.

China’s economy rose 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015, slowing slightly from 7 percent in the second quarter and its lowest quarterly growth since the global financial crisis.

The economy has entered a new stage of slower but more resilient growth, which Xi calls the new normal. The essence of which is an improved economic structure that relies more on domestic consumption, the service sector and innovation.

China is scheduled to release growth rates for the last quarter and the whole of 2015 on Tuesday.

Xi said innovation should be made the pivot of economic development, which would help foster new engines of economic growth.

He urged officials to stabilise short-term growth and plan for longer-term development, and coordinate development among different regions and the urban and rural areas.

Supply-side structural reform will advance economic restructuring by means of reform measures, while reducing non-effective and low-end supply as well as expanding effective and medium-to-high-end supply to boost productivity, Xi said.

A series of policy measures, especially those focusing on scientific and technological innovation, development of the real economy, and people’s livelihoods, should be used to address the problems with the supply side of the economy, he added. — Xinhua.

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