Ban Gongsheng, vice president of the People’s Bank of China, speaks at a press conference in Beijing, China, on March 3, 2023.Reuters/Florence Lo/File photo Obtaining license rights
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is on track to meet its annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth target this year and will transform its growth model to pursue high-quality and sustainable expansion, the central bank governor said on Wednesday. Said it was necessary.
In a speech posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, said that growth momentum has recently increased as production and consumption have steadily recovered, and employment and consumer prices have remained generally stable. He said it is improving.
The Chinese government has set an economic growth target of around 5% for this year.
“Our economy needs a moderate growth rate, but more importantly, it needs to achieve high-quality sustainable development,” Pan said.
“Shifting the mode of economic growth is more important than pursuing high growth rates.”
Pan said the central bank will maintain reasonable credit growth, keep liquidity reasonably ample, and “revitalize inefficiently occupied financial resources and improve the efficiency of fund utilization.” However, he did not go into details.
Chinese leaders have pledged to allocate more financial resources to support technological innovation, advanced manufacturing and green development.
Pan added that monetary policy deliberations will pay close attention to cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical adjustments.
China is scrambling to revive growth after a prolonged slump in the real estate market and local government debt risks temporarily stalled the post-coronavirus recovery.
Economic data released on Tuesday showed imports unexpectedly turned to increase in October while exports contracted at a faster pace.
Pan said he called on financial institutions to maintain stable funding channels through real estate credits and bonds to address real estate vulnerabilities.
Pan said the central bank will also provide liquidity support to highly indebted regions as needed.
Pan also said that investment in new projects in regions with high debt burdens would be tightly controlled.
Mr. Pan said the People’s Bank of China will keep the renminbi basically stable, prevent the formation of unilateral and self-reinforcing market expectations for the renminbi, and reduce the risk of renminbi overshoot.
The yuan has fallen more than 5% since the beginning of the year, making it one of the worst performing currencies in Asia.
(1 dollar = 7.2723 Chinese yuan)
Reporting by Kevin Yao, Liangping Gao, and Ellen Zhang.Editing: Tom Hogue and Sam Holmes
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.