CRI听力： China s International Balance of Payments Remain Double Surplus

Anchor:
China's foreign exchange regulator says the country's economy is showing notable signs of recovery. A report noted that the country's international balance of payments remains on track.

CRI's Zheng Chenguang takes a look.

Reporter:
China says the country's international balance of payments remained in "double surplus" last year, but the growth rate slowed.(www.hXen.com)

Take the current account for example, its surplus is estimated at 440 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 20 percent year-on-year. However, the growth was 27 percentage points lower than the previous year.

China's financial insiders say they have much confidence in the country's future economic outlook.

Deng Xianhong is deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

"The overall prospect of our economy has not been affected as we have laid a solid economic foundation over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up. Our residents have a massive amount of deposits. We still have broad market potential, adequate cheap labor, a sound financial system and a good fiscal budget."

Deng Xiaohong also says it's important for China to prevent big fluctuations of the exchange rates between the Renminbi and other currencies. And the country would use part of its foreign currency reserves to boost imports and consumer spending to combat the global financial crisis.

"China's current exchange rate regime conforms to the country's actual conditions. We will push forward with reform of the system in a self-initiated, gradual and controllable manner and keep the rate basically stable. This will be conducive to tackling the global financial crisis."

While admitting that some foreign companies are pulling money out of China, Deng Xiaohong also says such capital outflow has been very limited and the government has the capacity to cope with it.

China now has the world's largest foreign exchange reserve, which stands at nearly 2 trillion US dollars.

It rose by around 280 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2008, but the growth slowed sharply toward the end of the year as the financial crisis spread.

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news.