Beijing Review – August 15, 2019

40 BEIJING REVIEW AUGUST 15, 2019 http://www.bjreview.com

BUSINESS MARKET WATCH

Charting Course to Navigate Economic Headwinds

This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published

by Xinhua News Agency

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey

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eform, opening up and consumption
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the economy growing steadily dur-
ing the second half of the year and beyond,
with the country’s policymakers unveiling a
general roadmap to help navigate through
economic headwinds.
The Political Bureau of the Communist
Party of China Central Committee held a
meeting on July 30, reviewing the economic
situation and setting the tone for future
work.
The meeting came as the world’s largest
developing economy faces downward pres-
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country’s manufacturing activities continued
to stay in the contraction zone in July.
“As the Chinese economy faces new
risks and increasing downward pressure, the
country should focus on long-term trends
and key issues so as to turn crises into op-
portunities,” a statement released after the
meeting said.

According to the meeting, China will

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and prudent monetary policy. It said policies

on cutting taxes and fees should be further

implemented.

“Reduction in taxes and fees is a key tool

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plementing it is to evaluate the effectiveness

of the policies carefully and offer sufficient

supportive work,” said Yang Zhiyong, a re-

searcher with the Chinese Academy of Social

Sciences.

China’s central bank has raised its re-

lending quota by 50 billion yuan ($7.3 billion)

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Communications noted that the financing

structure is expected to be optimized as the

meeting called for the science and technol-

ogy innovation board to properly implement

its registration-based initial public offering

system with information disclosure at its

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While the country will take targeted

measures to support the development of

private enterprises, the meeting also called

for accelerating the clearing of “zombie

companies.”

The statement also noted that China

will adhere to the principle of “housing is for

living, not for speculation,” reflecting the

determination to ensure the stable develop-

ment of the real estate market in the long

term.

Wang Tao, an economist from UBS,

maintained that the statement and recent

tightening are mainly intended to prevent

too many resources from going into the

property sector rather than to weaken the

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The statement called for more efforts on

deepening the supply-side structural reform

and expanding the domestic market.

“Domestic demand will get a boost from

policies aimed at increasing the property

income of rural residents and improving the

quality of medium- and high-end consumer

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the Development Research Center of the

State Council.

To further boost cultural consumption and

the tourism sector, a State Council executive

meeting on July 31 called on local authorities to

cut or do away with ticket prices for scenic areas

and encouraged nighttime catering, shopping

and performances.

Development of the e-commerce sector

in rural areas will be further promoted, with

a focus on improving cold chain logistics for

agricultural produce.

Noting that a series of recent policies

are aimed at pushing forward reform and

opening up, Tu Xinquan, a professor at the

University of International Business and

Economics, said he expected the next round

of reform to be deeper and the speed of

opening up faster. Q

XIN

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A taxpayer (right) gets a list of her tax and fee cuts from a clerk in the tax bureau of Huian County, Quanzhou,
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