China advisers urge Beijing to step up reforms to offset trade war impact
- Series of structural reforms needed to ensure China can achieve its full growth potential
A group of current and former government economic advisers have urged Beijing to accelerate reforms in the important areas of technological innovation and private ownership protection to support the momentum of China’s long-term growth.
The appeal by the prominent economists came only a few days before the start of the government’s annual Central Economic Work Conference, at which top officials will set the direction of economic policies for next year.
Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist of the World Bank, led the chorus with his view that the country still has strong growth potential, given its comparative advantages in new technology, despite the official growth figure falling to a decade low of 6.5 per cent in the third quarter of this year.
“China can maintain a 6.5 per cent growth over the next two years and average annual growth of 5.5 per cent from 2020 to 2030,” he told the third National Development Forum at Peking University.
Lin tried to downplay the impact on the domestic economy of the trade war with Washington, a key reason for current financial market anxiety.