Economic policy to be fine-tuned for growth

Economic policy in the year's second half will be fine-tuned with targeted measures expected to cushion downside risks, experts said on Wednesday. They commented on the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held the day before.

While major policy shifts are not likely, more concrete steps and more flexible tools will be used to stabilize the economy, including moves to continue to soothe financial markets and stronger support for infrastructure construction, experts said.

China must coordinate efforts and policies to stabilize employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign and domestic investment and expectations, according to a statement issued after the meeting on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The word 'stabilizing' appeared many times in the post-meeting statement, which sent signals to the market that the government will put more emphasis on shoring up growth, with key measures expected to be rolled out to expand domestic demand," said Liu Liu, an analyst at China International Capital Corp.

While the tone of the overall monetary policy is expected to remain prudent, the government is likely to be more flexible while implementing its economic tasks, Liu said. Controlling the pace would cut leverage levels while ensuring its moves would not impede proper growth.

"The regulators may be more practical, giving greater consideration to the impact to the nonfinancial sector of the deleveraging drive. But a major rebound in money supply in the second half is not likely," said Wang Qing, chief economist at Golden Credit Rating Co.

Infrastructure construction is expected to play a key role in stabilizing growth, according to Wang.

Some refining of steps has been put in place amid downward headwinds and trade tensions with the United States that show no signs of cooling.

This year, the People's Bank of China adopted a variety of tools to keep liquidity stable amid market concerns that the deleveraging push had been too aggressive, possibly hindering growth.

Future deleveraging efforts will be implemented with more support to foster the economy, according to a statement by the central bank on Wednesday.

In the meantime, local governments are prepared to tackle challenges and have evaluated possible shocks to local enterprises in sectors with direct exposure to the US, according to a provincial regulatory document viewed by China Daily.

Local governments will roll out more measures to help affected enterprises, such as tax cuts and preferential policies to help them export their goods to regions involved in Belt and Road Initiative, the document said.

The government will pay close attention to future proposed tariffs and will react accordingly, reducing the negative impact of a possible weakening of export orders, according to the document.