Policy measures to yield results in H2, says NBS official

Wang Baoan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Economic indictors have gradually picked up and there are more signs the economy has started to stabilize, Wang Baoan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, told People's Daily in an interview.

The NBS announced major economic data on Wednesday and said the economy has slowly stabilized. Do you think the economy performed well in the first half?

With a series of policies and measures promoting steady growth, structural adjustment and preventing risk firmly in place, major economic indicators have clearly picked up.

China's GDP grew by 7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the same as the previous quarter. The country created 7.18 million new urban jobs in the first half, more than 70 percent of the full-year target. The consumer price index rose 1.3 percent, the same as the first quarter. Summer grain output saw a 3.3 percent annual growth. The national per capita disposable income grew 7.6 percent. Real estate sales saw a recovery. Sales of commercial housing grew 10 percent, compared with a fall of 9.3 percent in the first.

The economy is managing to shift from being industry-dominated to service-led. The government's efforts at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship effectively stimulated this strong economic vitality, with newly registered companies increasing more than 19 percent in number in the first six months.

GDP growth declined by 0.4 percentage points over the same period last year, but that's in line with the "new normal" of the Chinese economy - meaning slower but more sustainable growth.

What are the major reasons for these positive changes?

The most important is the State Council continued to strengthen and optimize its macroeconomic policies.

Steady growth creates a favorable macroeconomic environment for structural adjustment, but in the short term, too fast a transition between the old and new drivers also means greater downward pressure.

Development of the real economy needs financial support and a reasonable level of liquidity, but in the context of the slowdown, excessive monetary easing may lead society to take on higher financial risks, given the accumulated debt risks of the real estate sector, overcapacity and local government debt.

Faced with the dilemma, the State Council has done a good job in combining the "invisible hand" of the market and the "visible hand" of government.

It cut a lot of red tape and relaxed market entry for many sectors. The timely reduction in the reserve requirement ratio and the issuance of new bonds and displacement of local bonds, also had a significant effect.