China’s financial crisis team goes into overdrive with 10th meeting in two months
- Financial Stability and Development Committee pledges fresh support for stock market, economy, official statement says
- Vice-Premier Liu He’s team under pressure to resolve problems caused by trade war, slowing growth
A team led by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top economic aide and tasked with maintaining financial stability amid an escalating trade war with the United States and a weakening economy met for the 10th time in two months on Saturday.
Vice-Premier Liu He assembled his Financial Stability and Development Committee for a “10th thematic meeting on preventing and resolving financial risks”, according to a statement published on the government’s website on Sunday.
Liu took charge of the group of senior financial decision makers in July and held its first “thematic meeting” on August 24, according to a report by China Securities Journal. Details of the eight gatherings held between then and Saturday went unreported, though state media said on Sunday that Liu had also chaired three plenary sessions of the committee since taking charge.
“The anxiety among the top leadership is 100 per cent,” Xu Jianwei, senior China economist at French bank Natixis, said.
“One of Beijing’s top priorities for this year was deleveraging, but that policy has shifted gradually because there are more serious problems,” he said.
“If deleveraging continues, many Chinese companies may die in the process. But if deleveraging slows down, the financial risks will continue to pile up. So regulators are for sure very worried, and I don’t think they have found a particularly good way out of it.”
The website statement said the meeting agreed that China’s economic policy should seek to create a “triangular support framework”, comprising a neutral monetary policy stance, a vibrant corporate sector and a well-functioning stock market.