Bangladeshi experts hail China's economic mettle amid structural shift

DHAKA - China's economy has shown its mettle in recent times by passing one of the toughest tests of structural transformation, leading Bangladeshi experts said here Thursday.

As a result of the time befitting measures, they said the Chinese leadership has successfully managed to safeguard the economy, once heavily reliant on industrial exports.

Despite concerns about the slowing Chinese economy, the Bangladesh experts have sounded an optimistic note about the world's second-largest economy's prospects in the near future.

They said the Chinese economy has gone through a structural shift from high growth to more moderate growth, but maintained that it remains perfectly sound as its leaders have implemented the right kind of directions to safeguard the country's economy from potential shocks, or so-called hard landings.

Ahsan H. Mansur, executive director of the leading Policy Research Institute (PRI) think tank, told Xinhua that "Chinese economic management has been prudent and its leaders have avoided hard landings in Asia's previous crisis in the 1990s, as well as the global economic crises of 2008 and 2009."

He said, "There is now a need for accelerating the reform agendas particularly for stimulating domestic demand."

"We don't see signs of any more slowdown, or further deterioration behind what has passed," he added.

Experts say recent economic indicators point to the recovery of the Chinese economy, which expanded 6.9 percent year on year in 2015.

They say that it's encouraging to see that the entire Chinese leadership really worked hard to dispel worries about perceived economic woes related to China's slowing growth.

"There is no reason at all to worry any more," said Khandaker Golam Moazzem, a research director of another notable think tank, the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

He said China's economic growth rate might not be as rapid as before but that there will certainly be further growth in the near future.

The revival of other major economies like the US will definitely expedite Chinese economic growth, Moazzem added.

To battle economic slowdown, the Chinese government has stepped up policy support including aiming for a higher fiscal deficit ratio and pro-growth easing in the money market.

The effect of such intensified policy support is already quantifiable, and recent credit pickup as well as concerted local government's efforts to speed up property de-stocking has seen a significant uptick in fixed asset investment among other indicators.

Senior commentator Saif Islam Dilal also expressed hope that the Chinese economy will regain its growth momentum and lead the global economy.

"I do believe that Chinese economy will regain its growth momentum, it's just a matter of time. The economic shocks will, in fact, help China solidify its future economic development," said Dilal, also the president of the Economic Reporters' Forum, a professional body of economic journalists in Bangladesh.

The future of the Chinese economy will be a big blessing not only for Asia, but for the global economy at large," said Dilal, a planning editor at Bangladesh's leading RTV satellite broadcasting channel.