Steady growth to continue in 2019

Political Bureau meeting chaired by Xi vows to ensure healthy development

China will keep its major economic indicators within a reasonable range next year, continue to speed up reform in the economic system and push forward all-around opening-up, according to a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Thursday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chaired the meeting, which also vowed to stabilize employment, the financial sector, foreign trade, investment and expectations and to continue the steady and healthy development of the economy in 2019.

The country will continue to uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability as well as the new development philosophy, and to advance high-quality development, said a statement released after the meeting.

More work will be done to boost market confidence and improve the sense of advancement, happiness and security among the people, it said.

Next year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, is also a key year to secure the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society, the statement said.

The country will continue to uphold supply-side structural reform as the main task, deepen the reform in line with market principles and expand high-level opening-up, it said.

The three battles against potential financial risk, poverty and pollution will continue to be prioritized, and more efforts will go toward stimulating the vitality of micro entities and innovating in and refining of macro regulation, it said.

The statement said it is important to put the change in international circumstances and the domestic situation into a dialectical perspective, guard against potential dangers in times of peace and seize the important period of strategic opportunity for the country.

"(We should) shore up confidence, take the initiative and resolutely focus on tasks at hand," it said, vowing to strengthen coordination and cooperation, focus on major contradictions, grasp the pace and strength of the economy, and strive to achieve the best policy mix and the maximum overall effect.

More work will be done next year to promote high-quality development in the manufacturing sector and enable deeper integration between advanced manufacturing and the modern service sectors, meeting participants also decided.