Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said the government’s mix of active fiscal policies and relaxed monetary settings must stay in place while economic growth faces domestic and external weaknesses, official media said yesterday.
Visiting eastern Jiangsu Province over recent days, Wen stressed the government’s continued commitment to these policies, indicating that no shift is looming.
“We are persisting with implementing active fiscal policies and appropriately relaxed monetary policies because we still face many hardships and challenges, the international economic outlook remains unclear and pressure from falling external demand remains heavy,” Wen said, according to the central government’s Web site. “The impetus for self-sustaining growth in the economy is still not strong ... Therefore, the direction of macro-economic policy cannot change.”
Chinese officials face domestic and foreign investors jittery over the direction of policy and Wen’s words add to a recent drumbeat of comments stressing that the policy recipe remains unchanged.
Senior Chinese economic officials on Friday also quashed market speculation that Beijing might be starting to unwind its loose monetary policies introduced to prop up growth in the world’s third-largest economy,
The Shanghai stock market fell 4.4 percent this week, its biggest loss in five months, as investors fretted that the central bank was being less generous in flooding the banking system with cash to support spending and investment.
Figures for last month out this week are likely to show that China’s recovery is on course. GDP grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier.
But the Chinese Communist Party, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in power on Oct. 1, is leaving nothing to chance as long as the global economy remains in the doldrums, depriving China of the export demand that has been a big driver of growth in the past few years.
“Some industries and businesses are still in some hardship and the problem of excess production capacity is extremely striking,” Wen said.
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The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
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