China's Macroeconomic Management
Introduction
China’s economy has expanded at a rapid pace over the past three decades, underpinned by
a range of economic reforms. While many of these reforms have focused on the supply side
of the economy, the authorities have employed a range of policies to manage aggregate
demand and control the build-up of inflationary pressures and financial risks. The operation
of macroeconomic policy in China differs from that typically used in developed economies,
reflecting China’s particular institutional and economic environment. Macroeconomic policy
is implemented in a coordinated manner with authorities using a range of monetary, fiscal and
regulatory policy instruments to achieve economic objectives.
Conclusion
: Over the past decade, Chinese authorities have used macroeconomic policies
to support economic growth and to promote the longer-term policy objectives of industrialisation
and urbanisation while also managing financial and inflationary pressures.
: To manage aggregate demand growth, monetary and fiscal policy, together with controls
on the property market, have been used in a coordinated manner to respond to external shocks
and domestic developments.
:The coordinated nature of macroeconomic management was most evident
in the combined monetary and fiscal stimulus in response to the collapse in external demand
associated with the global financial crisis.
:Adjustments to the stance of macroeconomic policy have been implemented using a range of tools,
which has included managing the appreciation of the exchange rate and regulatory control of bank
lending (through benchmark interest rates, reserve requirements and window guidance).
However, reflecting the evolution of the Chinese economy, there has also been a gradual development of
market-based policy instruments. As the Chinese economy becomes increasingly market based and
open, the reliance on market-based instruments to manage the economy is expected to increase in future (Hu 2010).
More generally, the Chinese authorities have emphasised the goal of sustainable growth.
One aspect of this is that, with some concerns about the build-up of debt in recent years,
including that associated with the stimulus in the global financial crisis, the room for proactive
macroeconomic policy is more limited than in the past.
In addition, the target for growth has been lowered, consistent with a slowing in potential
growth as the economy reaches a more advanced stage of economic development following
very rapid growth over the past three decades.