CRI听力:Economists: China's Economy in 2013 to Grow Steadily

China's economy expanded 7.4 percent year on year in the July-September period, slowing for the seventh consecutive quarter.

However, official data has showed recovering fixed-asset investment, industrial activity and retail sales in recent months. But trade data remains ugly, as external demand has faltered.
Most economists believe a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee early this month set a positive tone for next year's economic development.

A statement issued after the meeting said Chinese authorities would put "enhancing quality and efficiency of economic growth at the center" next year.

Zuo Xiaolei, chief economist of China Galaxy Securities, agrees and predicts China's economic growth target in 2013 will stay at around 7.5 percent to 8 percent.

"It's proper to keep China's GDP target at 7.5 percent to 8 percent, because this reflects the potential economic growth situation in China. The economy should grow steadily. If we set the GDP target too high, the economy will grow with low quality, causing a lot of resource wasting. More importantly, it may create problems in the future economic structure."

The Political Bureau statement also revealed that Chinese leaders would deepen reform and opening up as well as step up their efforts to pursue growth driven by innovation. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, also stressed this while inspecting south China's Guangdong Province on Sunday.

Yuan Gangming, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that China's future reform will aim to tackle structural problems in the economy, which cause unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development. The Political Bureau statement and Xi's speech show that boosting domestic demand, innovation and urbanization will be key reform areas.

Yuan adds the policy of expanding domestic demand will focus on boosting consumption, however, investment will not be neglected.

"As there is still the haunting effect of the European debt crisis and the world economy waiting for a stimulant, China needs to overcome the negative influences by boosting its domestic demand and investment at the same time."

Yuan believes that the further reform will be helpful to reverse the current trend of economic decline, so he is confident about China's economic performance in 2013.

For CRI, I'm Nathan Schlabach.