Interview: World benefits from stable, growing Chinese economy: Argentine expert

The world is benefiting from a stable and growing Chinese economy, Argentine economist Gustavo Girado told Xinhua in an interview Sunday.

Western economists tend to focus mainly on China's banking and financial sectors like the stock market which have been volatile lately, but this is not the right way to assess China's economy, Girado, director of the Asia and Argentina consultancy, said.

The economist said that one of China's advantages is that its economic development has been planned with political consensus. The country has both long-term development goals and five-year development plans.

"Until now, China has shown that its medium- and long-term plans are designed with careful consideration of numerous criteria without losing perspective of the overall picture," he said.

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the main advisory political body of China, met to set the table for its key annual plenary session, which is scheduled to begin on March 3.

Besides, a key annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC), the legislative body of China, will kick off on March 5. The two sessions are important meetings to deliberate on China's development plans and policies.

Girado said that China, now entering a period characterized by a new normal of relative slower growth and an upgraded opening-up policy, has decided that consumption, instead of public investment and exports, would now be more of an engine to drive its economic growth.

"This will automatically spur its private sector," he said, adding that under the current circumstances, it is all the more necessary to stimulate domestic spending, "since the economic activity of China's trade partners has dropped of late."

The economist also sees great value in China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which was first outlined by President Xi Jinping in 2013, and allowed Chinese companies to better connect with foreign companies.

The initiative allows China to maintain its economic momentum by spurring the development of projects that require funding support from such new banks as the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, while bringing opportunities to all the participating countries, he said.

China's economic stability is crucial to the world, particularly to its trade partners, since a dynamic China will have more capacity to invest abroad, Girado said.

It is very important to Argentina that China keeps buying its products, which will help resolve Argentina's lack of foreign reserves, he added. Endi