Fidelity Insights - Will China's leaders hold steady on economic reform?

by Michael Collins, Investment Commentator at Fidelity

September 2013

China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei enjoys the same privilege with China’s media as Australian politicians do with Hansard – if you misspeak you can adjust the official record.

Lou’s error was to imply in July at a media briefing in Washington that China’s economic growth for 2013 could fall below the government’s target of 7.5%, for it fuelled concerns about the challenges facing China’s economy. “We don't think 6.5% or 7% will be a big problem,” he told reporters, a level that would mark China’s slowest growth since 1990.¹ 

To placate concerns that China’s government might fall short of a growth target for the first time since 1998, the government-run Xinhua News Agency quickly corrected its English-language story containing Lou’s remark to say, “There’s no doubt that China can achieve this year’s growth target”.² 

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