Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Jan 16, 2015

Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones:

Vice-Chairman Zhu, you said that last year China did a good job in securing steady growth. Will you have the same performance this year? If growth is not fast enough, will China use investment to drive growth? Do you think it is necessary?

The second question is to Mr Zhong Shan. Last year China saw the highest trade surplus in history. Even if imports were affected partially by the price, some foreign governments and agencies may see it differently. Some analysts believe that this year's trade surplus will go up by 100 billion yuan, or maybe higher. Do you think this year trade frictions will appear again? Thank you.

Zhu Zhixin:

Your question is what I've always been thinking about. Since 2013, we have innovated in our ideas and methods of macro-control. We clarified the reasonable range of economic growth, with stabilizing economic growth and ensuring employment as the lower limit of the range, and anti-inflation the upper limit. Metaphorically, one is the floor, the other is the ceiling. The way to keep economic growth in a reasonable range is to make sure that the economy goes neither above the ceiling nor under the ground.

This year, I think an important judgment is that the global economy is still in a deep adjustment period after the financial crisis. In that process, we may encounter more difficulties and risks. It is a great task of this year's macroeconomic policy to keep economic growth in a reasonable range, or, in other words, to change gears without losing speed when the economy is slowing down.

The World Bank predicted on Jan 14 that global economic growth will be 3.0 percent, down from the earlier forecast of 3.4 percent. The US economy will be up by 3.2 percent, from the previously predicted 3.0 percent. Predictions on the EU and Japan are also down. China was forecast to grow by 7.1 percent, down from 7.5 percent.

I think, as the economy develops, many institutions will make predictions on the Chinese economy. I don't think every one of them will be accurate, but the overall trend is relatively balanced. I think China's economy maintain appropriate growth.