China's economic reform progress under global spotlight

BEIJING - With the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference on Thursday, China's economic reform has once again drawn global attention as overseas media are seeking signals indicating the trend of China's macroeconomic policy under the "new normal."

In an article published on its website, the Reuters news agency said that "Chinese authorities chart the growth blueprint for the following years."

The London-based news agency added that "China's monetary policy will not be too tight or too loose next year as authorities try to sustain a reasonable growth in the economy."

"Beijing will roll out more stimulus measures to avert a sharper slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, either in the form of more interest rate cuts or cuts in the banks' required reserve ratios to encourage more lending," it noted.

In a report titled "Chinese leaders affirm commitment to slower growth," the Associated Press (AP) said "Chinese leaders have affirmed their commitment to a 'new normal' of slower economic growth next year and promised to promote market-oriented reforms and help the poor."

The plan, it added, is the latest stage in efforts by Chinese leaders "to steer the world's second-largest economy to more sustainable, environmentally friendly growth based on domestic consumption and technology instead of trade and investment."

The American news agency also underlined China's "reforms over the coming year to focus on reducing excess production capacity in industries including steel and overhauling energy policy to promote conservation."

"The meeting focused on the 'new normal' for the Chinese economy -- the shift from 'high-speed' to 'medium to high' growth," Japanese newspaper Nikon Keizai Shimbun said.

It added that "China is in the process of shifting toward a more service- and consumption-oriented economy, away from its overdependence on investment."

Agence France-Presse (AFP), for its part, noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders have said that they want to put China's increasingly affluent consumers at the center of the economy, rather than investment and exports, and that they are ready to tolerate slower expansion to achieve more sustainable growth.

"We continue to believe that policy makers will mostly allow the structural slowdown in investment in sectors with oversupply, such a real estate, to run its course, particularly given that both employment and consumption growth appear healthy," Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist with research firm Capital Economics, was quoted by the AFP as saying.