China has pledged to better coordinate its domestic economic work to account for international trade turbulence next year, with a high-level decision-making body calling for the promotion of “effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth” in the country’s economy.
After a meeting of the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo on Monday, the 24-member body said China would “seek progress while maintaining stability” in next year’s economic work, and continue to exert a “more proactive” fiscal policy and “moderately loose” monetary policy.
“[We need] to better coordinate domestic economic work and international economic and trade struggles, as well as development and security,” according to a readout released by state news agency Xinhua.
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It highlighted the need to “keep domestic demand as the main driver” and build a robust market within the country’s borders, while calling for promoting innovation and “accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new growth drivers.”
Historically, the Politburo’s December meeting has been closely followed by the annual central economic work conference, which typically sets the tone for policy in the year ahead.
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Su Yue, principal economist for China at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said describing next year’s international economic and trade work as a “struggle” highlighted that stabilising foreign trade – especially maintaining trade relations beyond the US – has been “elevated to one of the Party’s key priorities.”