‘China can manage its economic slump’

“We will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, as well as an innovation-driven development strategy,” Li told World Bank President Jim Yong Kim . 

China is willing to enhance macro policy coordination with international society via the G-20 group, he said.  For the first time in 25 years, China’s economy grew at its slowest pace at 6.9 per cent in 2015, sparking global concerns over the health of the world’s second largest economy as the Communist giant embarked on painful economic reforms.

The 6.9 per cent growth rate is the slowest in the country since the 3.8 per cent in 1990, a year after the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown rocked the country and isolated it internationally. Li has been playing down the impact of the slowdown saying that Chinese government targeted an annual economic growth of around 7 per cent by implementing various structural reforms to revitalise the economy which included cutting down excessive manufacturing and ramping up domestic consumption. 

In his meeting with Kim, Li praised cooperation between China and the World Bank in such areas as urbanisation and reform of pharmaceuticals and the healthcare system. Kim said all major economies should improve macro policy coordination against the backdrop of a weak global economy. 

China has maintained relatively fast economic growth by changing and through structural reform, state-run Xinhua news agency said. The World Bank is willing to deliver more rational and objective opinions about Chinese economy to international society, he added.