China sets economic policy for 2010

Chinese decision makers have gathered in Beijing over the weekend to determine the country's economic policies for 2010. The annual Central Economic Work Conference is held at the end of every year.

Maintaining robust and stable development, consolidating economic restructuring and boosting domestic demand will all be the focus of next year's policies.

According to a recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, polices to boost consumer spending will top the agenda of this year's Economic Work Conference.

The implementation of proactive fiscal policies and loose monetary policies will continue.

And more effort will be directed at enhancing the focus and flexibility of policies to reflect changing situations.

Officials from the central and local governments will also review the country's stimulus measures over the past year.

The Chinese government carried out a series of measures to cope with the slowdown in economic growth and weak export demand.

A 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package, a massive injection of credit, and multiple export-tax refunds all contributed to China's economic rebound.

A year on, these timely and decisive measures have helped China become the world's fastest growing economy.

However, some structural economic problems have yet to be resolved.

Such problems include excessive production capacity and the over-rapid development of industries with high energy and resource consumption.

The new polices are expected to pay more attention to the development of new and more efficient industries.

More efforts will also be made to promote domestic consumption, and more investment will be made to improve people's livelihoods.