China's supportive policies to underpin economic growth: J.P. Morgan economist

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Despite a subdued global economic outlook, J.P. Morgan's Chief China Economist Zhu Haibin said China's supportive policies will underpin its economic growth.

The country will implement counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policies to cope with downward pressure in the short term, while continuing structural reforms for long-term development, Zhu said.

Despite external headwinds, China's economy expanded by a slower but more sustainable rate of 6.6 percent in 2018. Policymakers have unveiled a series of supportive measures to stabilize growth, including reduction of taxes and fees, expanding consumption and investment and boosting employment.

Zhu expects tax reductions to equal to 1.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and to lift GDP growth by 0.46 percentage points.

He considered views that claimed China's consumption had lost steam as misleading and blamed weak auto sales for last year's slower consumption growth.

Consumption, excluding auto sales, has maintained a stable increase last year and will be boosted by tax breaks and other supportive policies, he said.

Zhu expects China's fixed-asset investment to increase 5.7 percent year on year this year, down slightly from a rise of 5.9 percent in 2018. But he forecast that growth of infrastructure investment will rebound this year, while that of property investment will moderate.