China’s Premier Li Keqiang calls for more targeted economic policy

"We should increasingly rely on reform, opening up and innovation to propel transformation and foster new economic drivers," Li Keqiang said at the meeting on Monday.

By: Reuters | Beijing | Published: January 24, 2018 9:55 am

China's Premier calls for more targeted economic policy

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. (Source: REUTERS)

China’s Premier Li Keqiang has called for more targeted economic policies and measures to cope with structural changes in the world’s second-largest economy. His comments come after China reported growth of 6.9 percent in 2017, compared with its target of about 6.5 percent. The economy beat the government’s expectations, reflecting quantitative expansion as well as an improvement in the quality of growth, Li told economic experts and entrepreneurs in a closed-door meeting on Monday.

A statement on the meeting, published by the central government on its website late on Tuesday, did not include any specifics on how policy might be changed. In recent years, China has been cutting excess capacity in heavy industries as part of its so-called supply-side reforms while pushing for new growth drivers, such as technology, and moving up the value chain. But policymakers walk a fine line as they shutter polluting and idle factories without causing massive unemployment and stunting local economies.