Chinese economic growth

China's top leaders pledged Friday to continue focusing on economic recovery next year and to maintain a basically accommodative policy stance, a statement that will likely reassure domestic businesses and financial markets that it supports continued growth.

The assurance comes amid growing calls from economists for Beijing to start scaling back its moderately loose monetary policy as the economy has staged a robust rebound.

While saying it will continue its monetary policy stance and active fiscal policy next year, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, or Politburo, has nonetheless left itself some wiggle room.

"We will maintain the continuity and stability of macro-economic policy," the Politburo concluded in a meeting chaired by President Hu Jintao, according to a report on the state television Web site.

"We will maintain our basic macro-economic policy stance, managing well the intensity, pace and focus of implementing policy...to increase the stability, balance and sustainability of economic growth."

As part of efforts to improve the composition of economic growth, the Politburo said it will pay closer attention to transforming how China grows and to economic restructuring, and will also work to boost domestic consumption next year.

The renewed emphasis on restructuring comes as economic growth has returned to pre-crisis levels. The Politburo said the recovery trend has continued to firm.

Despite signs of stabilization in the global economy, U.S. and Chinese academics have urged Beijing to rely less on exports to the U.S. and more on domestic consumption for economic growth, an objective Beijing has also said it shares.

China will also maintain "reasonable" investment growth next year and improve policies to encourage private-sector investment, the report said. Because public investments have driven the rebound in growth this year, economists say a further pickup in private investment will help sustain growth even after the stimulus program ends at the end of next year.

Additionally, China will improve its policies to stabilize external demand for Chinese products and seek to expand imports, in an attempt to promote a steady increase in foreign trade, the report said.

The government will nurture new sectors, including the services industry, encourage the participation of smaller firms in the economy, and increase its efforts to support innovation in China, as part of broader economic restructuring.

It will continue to improve its policies to help farmers and "do a good job of regulating the market for agricultural produce," the report said. Food prices can be major driver of inflation in China as they have a large weighting in the consumer price index, though the statement didn't mention inflationary risks.