“(Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ruled out major stimulus to fight short-term dips in growth, even as big falls in imports and exports data reinforced forecasts that the world’s second-largest economy has slowed notably at the start of 2014.
Li stressed on Thursday that job creation was the government’ policy priority, telling an investment forum on the southern island of Hainan that it did not matter if growth came in a little below the official target of 7.5 percent.
“We will not take, in response to momentary fluctuations in economic growth, short-term and forceful stimulus measures,” Li said in a speech.
“We will instead focus more on medium- to long-term healthy development.”
His comments are among the clearest yet on the government’s plans for the economy, which has rattled global investors this year with a surprisingly lackluster performance.
Trade data on Thursday showed exports unexpectedly fell for the second consecutive month in March, the worst showing in more than four years, while imports fell by the most in 13 months.
Exports fell 6.6 percent in March from a year earlier, following an 18.1 percent slide in February, and imports fell 11.3 percent, their weakest performance in 13 months.
Economists were most worried by the fall in imports, which was seen confirming weakness in manufacturing and consumer demand. Some of the fall in exports was attributed to figures early last year being inflated by fake invoices before a government crackdown around the middle of 2013…..”
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