China to meet growth targets: Premier Li

BEIJING - Agence France-Presse

REUTERS photo

China can meet its economic growth targets this year, Premier Li Keqiang told an international gathering on June 27, batting away concerns about risks in the country’s financial sector.

There are fears the world’s second-largest economy will lose momentum as policymakers curb freewheeling credit and property purchases that have powered growth for years, amid warnings of a potential debt-induced financial crisis.

Earlier this year Beijing set a growth target of around 6.5 percent for 2017, compared with last year’s pace of 6.7 percent which was the slowest in a quarter of a century.

“We have sufficient ability to prevent various risks and ensure that the economy will perform within a reasonable range,” Li told the World Economic Forum in the port city of Dalian.

He told the annual meeting broadcast online that China could “uphold the bottom line of no systemic financial risk”.

After years of blistering growth China’s economy has recently been slowing as the country seeks to reduce its reliance on debt-fuelled investment and exports.

But the transition has been complicated as Beijing wrestles with huge debt and excess capacity left over from massive government-backed infrastructure spending at the height of the global financial crisis.     
In the first three months of the year China expanded by a better-than-expected 6.9 percent, raising hopes the economy was stabilizing.

Li said the growth momentum continued into the second quarter with traditional indicators such as power generation and consumption, and new business orders, increasing “significantly.”