Australian analysts hail China's rate cuts

The People's Bank of China's decision to lower interest rates is seen as a decision affecting both the small and big pictures in Australia.

That could range from an increase in wine imports into China, to the materials needed to build and renovate housing and the cost of building buying that home.

But overall the cuts will enhance and evolve the strong economic ties between nations such as Australia, experts believe.

Local analysts spoken to Xinhua saying the move was obviously aimed at China's domestic economy, but given its enormous size trading partners would be positively affected.

Rather than being the "factory of the world", China's lower cash rates are more likely to lead to a growth in domestic consumption of foreign goods, and re-lay the platforms of trade.

And, says business lecturer Jane Qiu of Australia's University of New South Wales, those consumable will not be the traditional minerals and metals trade between the two countries.

Import levels of high quality foods and also wine were likely to rise, she said.

"In the long term interest rate cuts such as these will see a re-structure with more energy being invested into these infrastructures," she said.

"That will lead to increased investment into high-end consumer related goods and the further development of private infrastructure."

James Laurenceson, deputy director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said the decision indicated China was carefully navigating changing conditions in a fluctuating era.

"The recent interest rates cuts send a clear signal that the government is supporting growth in the near term," he told Xinhua.

"Lower interest rates makes funding for new investments cheaper. They also ease the cost of servicing existing debts. By sending this signal, the hope is that consumer and business confidence will receive a boost.

"With concerns over the domestic real estate sector, and sluggish growth overseas, that's a positive course of action.

"But the bigger picture is that the Chinese government is still showing it is comfortable with allowing growth to slow from double digit rates several years ago."

And the big picture, Qiu and Laurenceson say, is sustainability as the economy cools.

"The interest rate cuts we've just seen don't change that," he says.

"Ultimately, what matters for China, and for countries dependent on Chinese demand such as Australia, is that China's growth is sustainable in the medium and long-term."

Qiu and Laurenceson argued that lower Chinese interest rates were keys in shifting China's bed-rock economy of manufacturing into one catered for a stronger middle class.

"It is sustainable growth that will underpin the rise of China' s middle class and the demand for Australian goods and services such as high quality foodstuffs, education and tourism," Laurenceson said.

"Rather than focus too much on interest rate adjustments, what we need to be looking for are signs that China's economy is rebalancing towards domestic consumption and away from investment led by state-owned enterprises, and a dependence on exports to foreign consumers.

"And on that count, we just found out from China's National Bureau of Statistics that domestic consumption contributed more to China's growth last year than investment and net exports combined.

"In my view, that's the real positive development." Endi