Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, March 29, 2003
War Impact on China's Economic Growth Limited
Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the Boao Forum for Asia, claimed here that as the US-led strikeon Iraq is a regional war, its impact on China's economic growth is limited if it does not last too long.
Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the Boao Forum for Asia, claimed in Hongkong that as the US-led strikeon Iraq is a regional war, its impact on China's economic growth is limited if it does not last too long.
He said only 1 percent of the crude oil import of the Chinese mainland comes from Iraq, though 50 percent of the Chinese mainland's crude oil import comes from the Middle East countries, according to Saturday's Wen Wei Po.
Long, China's former foreign trade minister, said in a symposium held here that in the first three months this year, the Chinese mainland's export is expected to be 50 percent up over thesame period last year as buyers from various countries purchased much more amount of goods for storage in fear of the war.
However, he attributed the fast economic growth to the strong domestic demand. He said the sales volume of motor vehicles and production output of steel and cement witnessed a fast growth in the first three months this year.
He believed that the demands in those fields will remain strongwith China's development of housing reform.
He stressed that to the Chinese mainland, the pressing problem is deflation.
Long said China's entry into the WTO has helped deepen the restructure reforms and he expressed satisfaction with China's achievements in its first year's entry into the WTO.