Economy

China Premier: economic environment 'complicated'

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-05 07:57

BEIJING - China's economic health still faces threats from the halting global recovery, but Beijing has no plans to make major changes to its economic policies, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a report posted on the central government's website Sunday.

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China rebounded quickly from the global crisis on the strength of massive stimulus spending and record bank lending. But Chinese leaders, who expect Europe's debt crisis to hurt demand for Chinese goods, say the recovery is still vulnerable to a downturn in trade.

"Right now our economic situation is good, but the domestic and international economic environment is very complicated," Wen was quoted as saying in the report.

China must "work to promote stable and relatively fast domestic economic growth, restructure the economy and manage inflation expectations to ensure the government's goals for 2010 are met."

Beijing is trying to pump up domestic demand to reduce reliance on investment and exports to drive growth. Retail spending is rising, but millions of jobs still depend on export industries.

"The severity of the international financial crisis and the difficulties of economic recovery have surpassed people's expectations," he said.

"So we will not only take great efforts to solve some long-running structural problems, but also we need to solve some existing and urgent problems," Wen said, without elaborating.

Chinese leaders have frequently reassured the public that the economy is recovering in an effort to encourage consumers and companies to continue to spend and invest. But they also have called for efforts to increase production, efficiency and consumption.