Chinese economy to overcome difficulties, make new strides

China's upcoming annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have drawn the attention of the world as a window on the country's political and economic development.

At a time when the global economy is struggling to recover and restructure, Chinese economists, deputies to the NPC and members of the CPPCC are confident China's economy will overcome difficulties and make new strides in 2014, a year that marks the beginning of comprehensively deepening reforms and opening-up.

They say this year's two sessions will lay a new blueprint for China's economic and social development and that the Chinese economy will succeed in both development and reform.

CRUCIAL PERIOD FOR ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

In the context of a complicated and volatile world market last year, the Chinese economy witnessed a two consecutive months of decline.

However, thanks to Chinese policymakers' strategy of making progress while maintaining stability, market confidence was obviously shored up from the beginning of the second half of 2013.

Economic growth finished at 7.7 percent last year, making a good start for China's socioeconomic development and laying a solid foundation for further progress in 2014.

In 2013, China's total imports and exports reached 4.16 trillion U.S. dollars as it overtook the United States as the world's largest trading nation.

A historic change also took place in the country's industrial structure, with the service sector exceeding secondary industry for the first time. Meanwhile, consumption overtook investment to become a driving force for economic growth.

In addition, the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.6 percent year on year, far below the government's target of 3.5 percent. A total of 13 million new jobs were created, higher than the target of 9 million, with per capita net income of urban and rural residents remarkably increasing.

These achievements showed China had taken a "substantial" step in economic restructuring, said Jia Kang, director of the Institute for Fiscal Science Research under the Chinese Finance Ministry.

Jia, also a CPPCC member, said that, in the face of ever-changing world economic situations and downward pressure on the national economy, Chinese leaders' strategy of stabilizing growth, restructuring and promoting reforms helped the economy realize steady growth and play the role of "a stabilizer" for the global economy.

A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s Central Committee was convened Monday to discuss the government work report to be submitted for deliberation at the annual NPC plenary session in early March.

During the meeting, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said China achieved better-than-expected results last year, despite experiencing more difficulties than expected.

China's development still faced complicated situations "with the coexistence of advantages and disadvantages," the meeting noted.

From an international perspective, the profound readjustment of the world economy has brought an unprecedented opportunity and challenge for the Chinese economy.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted 3.7 percent growth for the world economy in 2014, the first increase in its prediction in the past two years.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said the world economic growth, driven by emerging economies in the past five years, was expected to be boosted again by developed economies.

"The global economic crisis has not come to an end yet, but entered a new stage," said Li Yang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Due to the the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to taper its quantitative easing monetary policy, emerging economies and developing countries were hit by a shortage of funds, said Li, who is also a NPC deputy, adding the Chinese economy would be affected by a resurfacing of some old structural problems.

At home, the Chinese economy is experiencing historic transformation from high-speed development to moderately rapid growth.

"The Chinese economy is currently in a period of 'dual conversion'," said Feng Fei, an analyst with the State Council's Development Research Center, referring to the transition in both growth momentum and comparative advantage.