Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said in a recent interview with the Chinese influential economic magazine Caijing that China should implement three reforms, including trade liberalization, investment liberalization and yuan liberalization.
At the same time, foreign governments often criticize China for slowing down the process of opening its economy to the global market. According to Alexander Lomanov, an expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Zhou’s remarks came as a signal to foreign governments and indicates that Beijing is likely to deal with the issue.
"His message was that new measures on developing a market economy and liberalizing trade will be discussed at the upcoming party congress. For the Chinese leadership, the priority goal is to adjust its economic reform due to new global and domestic economic challenges," Lomanov told Sputnik China.
"This is not a polemic matter. First of all, China wants to continue its current policy and wants to solidify its unprecedented experience of economic growth of 40 years. The driving factor behind this policy is the need to maintain growth stability and sustainable economic development," he pointed out.
According to data from China’s central bank, Chinese foreign exchange reserves reached over $3.1 trillion and have been increasing for the seventh straight month. The South China Morning Post reported citing experts that taking into account this tendency, Beijing may soon ease some of its regulations, including on payments and investments.
"An increase in forex reserves is a sign of a stable economy and positive trends in global trade. Moreover, the yuan strengthened in the first half of 2017. All of the above means that the Chinese economy has a large potential for growth. It also indicates that the Chinese government has the political will to maintain stable economic growth. This is an important signal for the rest of the world," Bian said.
Earlier this week, Ning Jizhe, head of the Chinese Statistics Bureau, said that Beijing will have no problem meeting its economic growth target of 6.5 percent this year and may even exceed it. Last week, the World Bank improved its outlook for China’s growth for 2017, from 6.5 to 6.7 percent.
