Li's economic balancing act

The Shanghai-Nantong Yangtze Bridge under construction on the Nantong side of the river in Jiangsu province. Fixed-asset investment growth further slowed to 13.9 percent in the first two months of this year. Xu Congjun / For China Daily

Chairing a recent meeting of scholars and heads of enterprises, Premier Li Keqiang stressed the need to strike a balance between the efforts to stabilize growth and the efforts to promote structural adjustments.

China's 7 percent growth in the first quarter, the lowest since the first quarter of 2009, has fueled complaints that the ongoing structural adjustments are being made at the cost of economic growth.

Facing complicated and precarious economic circumstances at home and abroad, China's efforts to transform its extensive and resources consuming development model demonstrates its determination to secure the foundation for sustainable economic growth. Only through optimizing its economic structure, raising the productivity of factories and realizing optimized distribution of resources can China activate the potential and incentives for sustainable economic growth in the future.

The efforts to promote structural adjustments and the efforts to maintain stable growth are not mutually exclusive.

As a country that is still industrializing, modernizing and urbanizing, China must maintain a moderate rate of growth to ensure its steady economic development. Gearing down to a moderately slower growth rate from the previous breakneck speed will help China improve the quality of its economic growth and ensure it can expand employment and raise people's incomes. Any deep slide of the economy will deal a heavy blow to market confidence and cause the economy to further slide.

Therefore, as Li said, it is necessary to balance the efforts to stabilize growth with the efforts to promote the necessary structural adjustments.

The above is an abridgement of a China Youth Daily article published on Monday.