Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said yesterday the country’s stimulus package was working and the economy was “better than expected,” but he cautioned that complete recovery would take much more time because the global financial crisis continued to spread.
Wen, also China’s top economic official, pledged to pull the country out of its slump by expanding domestic demand, building major infrastructure projects, finding jobs for college students and improving the social safety net.
Wen spoke at the Boao Forum, an annual gathering of government and business leaders on the tropical southern island province of Hainan. The theme of this year’s conference, which organizers said drew 800 executives, was “Asia: Managing Beyond the Crisis.”
CONFIDENT
The premier, the country’s No. 3 ranking leader, said he was confident China could overcome the crisis but warned that global economic recovery would be a “long and torturous process.”
“We should not lose sight of the fact that the international financial crisis is still spreading, the basic trend of world economic recession is not reversed,” he said, adding that problems in the world’s financial system were still unsolved.
But Wen said China was in relatively good shape because the country had sufficient capital, a solid banking industry and rich labor resources that would help it overcome the crisis.
The country’s industrial output has gradually stabilized and there was “sufficient liquidity in the banking industry,” he said.
Investment growth was gaining speed, and consumption was growing “fairly fast,” he said.
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