Optimism over China's Economy Surfaces

Quality growth

"China has become more tolerant about the speed of growth," Li said. "The top leadership seems to be decisive in wanting quality growth through faster acceleration of economic restructuring."

Lian Ping, chief economist at the Bank of Communications, said it would be easy for the top leadership to get the country to return to a faster growth pace if they chose to do so. "By easing the curbs on the property market, China would be back to double-digit growth," Lian said. "But that route is clearly rebuffed in the statement and shows the government's determination to fight speculation in housing."

The government may tolerate an increase in property prices next year, some analysts speculated, citing a shift in tone they found in the conference statement.

At last year's work conference, leaders pledged to "keep a tight policy in the property sector firmly in place in order to push property prices to return to a more reasonable level." This year, the first part of that pledge was still intact, but the reference to prices was dropped.

Some analysts interpreted that omission to mean that new measures may not be introduced to combat the resurgence of property prices seen in recent months.

On the financial-risk front, a relatively loose policy stance may feed shadow-banking activities, such as trust loans, some analysts warned. The conference statement gave no indication that the government will tighten controls over shadow banking any time soon.

"Slower growth is what we are talking about," said Lian. "In the government dictionary, that means stable growth. The government will never allow a sharp contraction in the economy."

Trade remains a disquieting factor going into the new year.

China is seeking to reduce the nation's dependence on exports, which have been hard hit by slowing global markets. But in reality, exports still carry considerable weight in terms of jobs and production value.

Exports in November grew a paltry 2.9 percent, down sharply from a surge of 11.6 percent in October.

The State Information Center, a top government think tank, said last week in a research report that China's trade may continue to face difficulties in 2013 because of the lingering debt problems in Europe and weak global demand.

The center is forecasting that exports may grow 8 percent next year, while imports are seen to rise 7.8 percent at most. Exports in the first 11 months of this year climbed 7.3 percent, while imports increased 4.1 percent.

"Trade is a worry," said Pu Yonghao, regional chief investment officer for Asia Pacific at UBS. "But overall, the pessimism is dissipating, replaced by cautious optimism about China's economy."

At a seminar earlier this month in Shanghai, Pu displayed the picture of a springtime scene to illustrate general sentiment, even though the city at the time was in the grip of winter.