THE government will hold an annual economic conference in Beijing late next week to set guidelines for monetary and fiscal policy in 2011, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Officials may discuss lending and inflation targets at the Dec. 10-12 meeting, one of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
China s central bank has said that it will guide monetary conditions back to normal after unprecedented lending drove the nation s economic recovery since 2008. After raising interest rates in October, officials have threatened to impose price controls and pledged to use tools such as sales of State food reserves to counter the fastest inflation in 25 months.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, government officials and some executives of State-owned enterprises attended last year s meeting.
The government s shift away from policies adopted to counter the global financial crisis has included raising rates, scrapping a currency peg, and boosting banks reserve requirements. At the same time, policymakers have continued to describe monetary policy as moderately loose and the nation s fiscal stance as proactive.
Domestic banks extended about 6.9 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion) of new loans in the 10 months through October, according to central bank data. In addition, lenders have made 600 billion yuan of new loans this month, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Nov. 23. The figures suggest that the government s full-year target of 7.5 trillion yuan may be breached.
Overall credit growth should be curtailed to 15 percent next year from an estimated 18.8 percent this year, Xia Bin, an academic adviser to the People s Bank of China, said Nov. 25.
Officials at the work meeting may set a higher inflation target of 4 percent for 2011, up from this year s 3 percent, and shift to describing monetary policy as prudent, China Business News reported Nov. 24, quoting an unidentified person who has consulted on policy. In October, inflation was a more-than-estimated 4.4 percent. (SD-Agencies)
