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Zhou: China's economy sound, but challenges loom

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-26 16:20

Better communication

Looking ahead, Zhou said that the central bank would work out an advance plan for how it could provide emergency help to banks should it need to do so, and would use normal monetary policy tools to ensure there was ample liquidity in the system.

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The People's Bank of China (PBOC) would step up communication with other key central banks and improve its own supervision and management over speculative capital flows to ensure that no potentially damaging outflows would occur.

Zhou also said the PBOC would continue to reform interest rates to make them more market-orientated, and reiterated a long-standing pledge to improve exchange rate flexibility while keeping the yuan basically stable.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday that, while weakening external demand was hurting the economy, his government was confident it could keep growth steady through appropriate policies such as developing the countryside.

In the latest sign of weakening demand for Chinese products overseas, export deals struck at a recent trade fair in the market hub of Yiwu, Zhejiang province, fell over 3 percent from a year earlier, the official Xinhua news agency said.

But the government has been quick to roll out measures to keep the economy humming.

In addition to increasing export tax rebates for many products and making it easier for people to get mortgages, the government has announced that it will spend 2 trillion yuan ($292 billion) on expanding its railways, greater than what it had previously committed.

Zhou added that the central bank would keep a close eye on consumer prices, even though inflation has eased in the past several months, slowing to an annual 4.6 percent in September from a peak of 8.7 percent in February.

He cautioned that inflation may rebound, but did not specify how that would affect monetary policy, which has recently shifted focus to supporting growth.

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