Economic growth is expected to dominate the agenda when party, government and military leaders meet to plot next year's course at the Communist Party's annual National Economic Working Conference, tipped to start today.
The participants are expected to focus on ways to maintain a decent growth rate using expansionary fiscal and monetary policies and are likely to propose that the government aim for 8 per cent growth next year, according to economic analysts.
'Keeping an acceptable economic growth rate for 2009 will stand atop the agenda of the party, and in extreme cases, China will make much bolder moves than announced to avoid any sharp slowdown,' Zhu Min, an economist with the State Information Centre, a government think-tank, said.
After 11.9 per cent growth last year, the fifth consecutive annual double-digit increase, China's growth fell to 9 per cent in the third quarter this year.
In October, mainland gross domestic product growth was believed to have slid to 5 per cent. This signals that Beijing faces a tough mission to maintain the 8 per cent bottom-line growth rate needed to create enough jobs for the 20 million or so citizens joining the workforce each year, a key factor in social stability.
'The first priority ... should be keeping China's economy growing at a steady and relatively fast rate,' the Politburo said last week. 'We must adhere to flexible and prudent macroeconomic policies and continue to practice active fiscal policies and moderately loose monetary policies.'
