![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]()
Beijing (AFP) Jul 25, 2006 Chinese President Hu Jintao has flagged a raft of new policies this year to rein in the nation's booming economy while warning about the dangers of unrestrained growth on the environment. "Measures should be taken in relation to loans, land supply and environmental protection in order to restrain blind growth in high energy-consuming and polluting industries," a Xinhua news agency report late Monday cited Hu as saying. The comments came after China reported last week a 11.3-percent year-on-year growth rate in the second quarter, accelerating from an already high 10.3 percent in the first three months of the year and 9.9 percent for all of 2005. The faster growth came despite a series of measures in the first half of the year aimed at slowing the economy, including in April the first interest rate hike 18 months. Much of China's growth has been driven by frenetic investment in infrastructure and property. Banks have been fueling that growth with easy loans while domestic consumption, although increasing, has remained stubbornly low. Hu, who was speaking on Friday to a group of politicians, said that in the second half of 2006, more efforts should be made to promote domestic demand, especially consumption by farmers and medium- to low-income urban residents. More investment should also be channelled into social services, especially towards rural education, medical care and culture, he said, according to the Xinhua report. The president also included the tackling of China's huge trade surplus and the widening rich-poor divide as priorities for the second half of the year. "China's foreign trade structure should be optimized and a balance struck between imports and exports," Hu said, without elaborating on what measures should be taken. Hu has previously urged the country to improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth to tackle increasingly overheating industries and their wasteful resource consumption. Following the release of the growth figures last week, the government quickly announced a new hike to the reserve ratio requirements for banks in an effort to slow lending. The government also announced Monday new regulations to limit foreign investment in the property sector, one of the nation's most over-heated industries. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links China News from SinoDaily.com
![]() ![]() Typhoon Kaemi struck the southeast coast of China on Tuesday, sparking the evacuation of over 500,000 people in an area still reeling from a tropical storm that claimed over 600 lives. |
![]() |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |