Beijing to keep 2019 growth within reasonable range

China will keep its economic growth within a reasonable range next year, striving to support jobs, trade and investment while pushing reforms and curbing risks, the top decision-making body of the Communist Party said on Thursday.

“We will promote steady growth, promote reform, adjust structure, benefit people’s livelihood and prevent risks in a coordinated way, and keep economic operation in a reasonable range,” the official news agency Xinhua reported, citing a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.

The government has recently launched a raft of measures, including reductions in reserve requirements for banks, tax cuts and more infrastructure spending, to ward off a sharp deceleration in the economy. Further steps to bolster growth are expected.

It will further stabilize employment, the financial sector, foreign trade, investment and market expectations, and boost market confidence, Xinhua said.

The politburo called for greater awareness of potential problems in the economy, given changes in both external and domestic conditions.

“We should strengthen coordination and cooperation, focus on major contradictions, grasp the pace and strength of the economy, and strive to achieve the best policy mix and the maximum overall effect,” it said.

Top leaders are due to map out economic and reform plans for 2019 during an annual Central Economic Work Conference later this month.

China’s economic growth slowed to 6.5 percent in the third quarter, the weakest since the global financial crisis. While 6.5 percent is the government’s target for economic growth in 2018, the full-year expansion could slightly exceed this figure.

In a symposium on Tuesday, Xi said that next year China must persist in promoting high- quality development, continue to pursue structural supply-side reforms, and keep up the fight against poverty, risk and pollution.

China must also continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy while keeping monetary policy prudent, Xi was cited by Xinhua as saying.

“We must unswervingly deepen structural supply-side reforms, adopt more ways of reforming and opening up (the economy), and take more market-oriented and rule-of-law means to continue producing solid results,” Xi said.