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1st LD: Rating agencies' China credit outlook downgrade fails to reflect reality of China's economy: finance minister

Xinhua, April 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Major credit rating agencies' decisions to downgrade the outlook for China's sovereign bonds failed to reflect the reality of China's economy, as the country registered a quite high growth rate of 6.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said here on Friday.

"While this growth rate is below our previous performance, it's still within our expectation, as the growth target for this year is set in the range of 6.5 to 7 percent," Lou told Xinhua at a press conference after the two-day G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Washington.

In response to credit rating agencies' concerns about China's government debt, the finance minister said China's central government debt is not at a high level and the country has taken measures to control the recent increase in local government debt.

"Credit rating agencies do not know the specific Chinese economic situation," Lou said through an interpreter. "I don't blame them because they don't know what's going on the ground in China." Endit