File Photo.

By Fang Yang

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Stability is still the key word at China's annual Central Economic Work Conference that closed in Beijing to set tone for the country's 2012 economic and social development.

According to a statement issued after the conference, "making progress while maintaining stability" will be the main theme next year, as China will ensure the exchange rate of the yuan RMB basically stable and will also unswervingly maintain regulation policies on the property market.

As one of the most important economic policy-making events in China, the conference has drawn intense attention at home and abroad and triggered heated discussion about the future of the world's No.2 economy.

Some think that there is no big policy change at this meeting and the key word stability is nothing novel for the country's economic development. But many others believe that it is a sensible choice to maintain stable growth given the international and domestic situations.

International situation put more pressure on China

The year of 2011 is not an easy one for the world economy. The global financial crisis is still hunting and the industrial nations are deeply mired in a substantial slowdown. The eurozone sovereign debt crisis, for example, has worsened and the U.S. economic recovery remains weak.

Under the economic globalization, every country suffers and has to pay the cost. Quantitative easing policies, which are likely to be put into place in the United States and Europe to help solve the debt crises there, may create additional inflationary pressure on China, according to Wang Tongsan, head of the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Faltering external demand and a decelerating economy at home has continued to weigh on China's foreign trade and slowed its export growth in 2011.

The country's foreign trade rose 17.6 percent year-on-year to 334.4 billion U.S. dollars in November, compared with 21.6 percent in October, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The GAC data shows that China's exports increased 13.8 percent from a year earlier to 174.46 billion U.S. dollars, the slowest growth since February.

"The global economic slump and sluggish external demand left little room for sharp increases in China's export volume. In the meantime, most Chinese exports are manufactured goods that face full competition and exporters tend to wage 'price wars' when the world economy is weak, thus squeezing China's exports," said Zhang Yansheng, a researcher of the Institute for International Economics Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner.

And things will probably get worse as some experts noted. "China may see negative export growth next year in some months although shipments for the year could rise 10 percent if there's no world recession," said Yu Bin, director of macroeconomic research at the State Council's Development Research Center.

"It's too early to predict the prospects of export for the whole year of 2012, but one thing is for sure, the first quarter will be very severe for China's exports," said Shen Danyang, spokesman of Ministry of Commerce.

That is one of the main reasons China sees that it cannot continue relying on exports and more efforts should be made to balance trade through expanding imports. Last Thursday, the Ministry of Finance said that from 2012 China will reduce import taxes for 730 categories of goods including energy resources, parts and components of strategic emerging industries and daily necessities that could promote consumption.

Meanwhile, China's exporters will focus more on developing countries. According to Wang Shouwen, head of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, the country will quicken the pace of readjusting its foreign trade structure, support the brand-building, research and development, and introduce more sales channels for companies.

Stable growth - made in China, enjoyed by the world

BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Although China cannot rise as the savior of the floundering world economy, its stable growth will offer more than just confidence amid deep economic gloom.

China wrapped up its most important economic meeting of the year with an agreement to focus on maintaining stable economic growth while preventing a potentially destabilizing rebound in inflation next year amid the "extremely grim and complicated" global outlook. Full story

China eyes stable growth in 2012 amid "extremely grim" outlook

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China will seek stable and relatively fast economic growth next year amid the "extremely grim and complicated" global outlook, according to a statement issued after the closure of a three-day central economic work conference on Wednesday.

The conference agreed to set the main theme of next year's economic and social development as "making progress while maintaining stability," the statement said. The plans mapped out at the conference will chart the course of next year's economic work.