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Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-03-15 15:55:25

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Pieter Bottelier, senior adjunct professor of China studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins University, United States.

Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies

I think more progress has been made in more areas than most people realize.

If you look at the macroeconomic picture, it is striking that the share of household consumption of GDP on the expenditure side has risen quite a lot and is still rising.

Generally, consumer demand is holding up very well in China.

The other positive sign is that there is a lot of investment and employment creation in service sectors.

The contribution of service sector in the economy is already larger than manufacturing, which I think is a very positive sign.

Another positive sign is that the huge external surplus of the years preceding the crisis has essentially disappeared.

The current account surplus, which is sort of the metrics of external imbalance, is much more normal today. It's below 2 percentage of GDP.

And another positive is that labor markets generally have remained relatively healthy. Real wages on average have continued to rise, a little less than a few years ago.

It's one of the few economies in the world where real wages and relatively full employment have prevailed, which is surprising because the economy has slowed down so much.

Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies
Sarah Boumphrey, Head of Strategic, Economic and Consumer Insight, Euromonitor International

Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies

The continuing reforms to the hukou system since 2014 have been the most important and will continue to be key to driving economic growth in China.

Urbanization is a crucial driver of growth and empowering rural migrants is central to boosting consumption in China.

China's urbanization levels are more than 25 percentage points lower than the average for developed economies so the potential for further urbanization remains significant.

Anything the government can do to boost urbanization, and lessen urban and rural inequality, is good for the economy. Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies
Sung Won Sohn, Professor of economics at California State University

Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies

The change in the composition of output from industrial to service-oriented economy has been impressive.

Chinese consumers will begin to enjoy fruits of their labor.

The service sectors of the economy, which has exceeded 50 percent of GDP, include sectors such as healthcare, social services, sports, entertainment etc.

Financial market liberalization is another significant progress.

Interest-rate controls have been relaxed and some of the shackles in the currency markets have been removed even though capital movements are still controlled.Overseas academics share their thoughts on China's reform policies