Monday, April 26, 2010

China Pledges to Keep ‘Relatively Easy’ Policies Amid Recovery

Chinese officials have pledged to extend their "proactive" fiscal measures and maintain a "relatively easy" monetary policy, suggesting that the global economic recovery remains provisional. China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said in at an IMF meeting that, "We will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a relatively easy monetary policy, and will continuously improve the policy package to respond to the international financial crisis to main good momentum of the economic recovery." While also adding that "the outlook for the global economy faces many uncertainties," suggesting that perhaps there is more to come and that the extent of the effects from the financial meltdown are yet to be felt still. Or could he mean that the ball is in the consumer's court and the uncertainty lies in whether their confidence and spending return to normalcy?

China’s economy expanded 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the biggest gain since the second quarter of 2007, as lower borrowing costs and the government’s $586 billion stimulus package boosted spending on roads and other projects. While exports increased 24 percent in March, slower than economists forecast, bolstering the government’s argument for keeping stimulus measures even as inflation quickens, thus showing skepticism.

According to Zhou, China will continue with “stable and relatively rapid” growth this year, while balancing “inflation expectations." Also, the central government projects gross domestic product growth of about 8 percent and an inflation rate of 3 percent this year.

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