China's demographic dividend will continue for a decade: Commerce Minister

"The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) is doing research on 'labor shortage' issues," said China's Commerce Minister Chen Deming. He believes that China's demographic dividend will continue for a decade.

As to earlier reports that the MOFCOM and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) have designed a stress-test for China's labor-intensive industries to determine the effect of yuan appreciation, Chen reiterated that China would keep yuan exchange rate relatively stable. "Please ask central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan for detailed questions."

Assistant Minister of the MOFCOM Wang Chao said Tuesday that the government's investigation into yuan appreciation pressure on export-oriented enterprises was "normal."

"A one-off appreciation in the Renminbi exchange rate will have great impact to both parities of international trade. Meanwhile, one-off appreciation will do nothing good for China's industrial restructuring," said Li Daokui, a political advisor and director of the Economic and Management Institute of Tsinghua University.

Regarding China's February exports, Chen said that February data was better than the previous month, but refused to provide more details.

In January, China's export value totaled 109.47 billion U.S. dollars, up 21 percent year on year, while import surged 85.5 percent to 95.31 billion U.S. dollars.

Monday, China's forex regulator predicted that with a more stable global recovery trend, the country's foreign trade may see recovery growth.

By People's Daily Online