Overcoming growing pains

Government needs to push forward with reforms to achieve balanced and sustainable development via restructuring

The government will maintain a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy due to the country's slower economic growth. However, the policy space for carrying out short-term macroeconomic measures in China is already quite limited. Therefore, reforms must be promoted to achieve stable economic growth in the course of restructuring.

China's GDP was 7.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, slower than expected. It declined 0.2 percentage points compared with the last quarter of 2012, and was 0.1 percentage points lower than the average growth rate last year. Although it is a slight drop, it was a continuation of the slowdown trend that appeared in 2011. The relatively weak growth is mainly reflected in the low added value in manufacturing, which is rooted in weak investment by manufacturers. Generally, the inventory level is relatively high in China, so the willingness of enterprises to invest is weak.