'Tapering' of QE by US would benefit world: Economists

If the United States stopped printing money, it would benefit China and the rest of the world, economists said, although they doubt the world's biggest economy will do so.

The US Federal Reserve said in the minutes of its last meeting on Wednesday that it could begin to scale back its so-called stimulus program at one of its next few meetings.

It added that the "tapering" would happen only if economic conditions allow it, but it is widely believed the minutes send a signal the central bank may be getting closer to cutting back its unprecedented bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, which has been sending floods of funds into emerging markets including China.

If the US were to stop meddling in the market, that would be good news for China, said Zhou Hao, a Shanghai-based economist with Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp. Capital inflow will ease and Chinese banks won't have to print as much money to buy inbound dollars, thus alleviating inflation and money supply growth. And that fits perfectly into the government's plan to deleverage the economy.

Money supply caused by fund inflows was 441.6 billion yuan ($72 billion) in October, second only this year to the 700 billion yuan in January, according to data published by the Chinese central bank. And the data have generally stayed buoyant ever since the US started asset purchasing shortly after the financial crisis.

"The US recovery is far from strong at the moment. I don't think they will sacrifice themselves for the general well-being of the rest of the world," said Zhou.

"That is just not consistent with the way the US does things."

The Benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.04 percent on Thursday to 2,205.77 points. Most other Asian stocks also fell on concern of fund outflows caused by Federal Reserve tapering.

Chinese companies, especially cash-hungry developers, have already been busy issuing bonds this year, in case the Fed's market exit pushes rates up.