Davos: China says it can achieve sustainable economic growth

By Leika Kihara

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - China's economy will continue to achieve sustainable growth despite global uncertainties, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan said on Wednesday, days after the second-largest economy posted its weakest economic expansion in nearly three decades.

"There will be a lot of uncertainties in 2019, but China's economy will continue to achieve sustainable growth," Wang told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"Speed does matter. But what really matters is the quality and efficiency of our economic development," he said.

Wang added that China did not see its economy entering an end of an expansionary cycle.

In a remark apparently aimed at the United States, he also called on all nations to uphold multilateralism and do whatever they can to ensure global imbalances do not worsen.

 

This week, China reported a cooling of fourth quarter growth due to faltering domestic demand and a trade war with the United States, which has imposed bruising tariffs on Chinese goods.

In the quarter, gross domestic product grew at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis, easing to 6.4 percent year-on-year, as expected. That pulled full-year growth down to 6.6 percent, the slowest annual pace since 1990.

(Additional reporting by Meg Shen in Hong Kong and Lee Chyen Yee in Singapore; Editing by Mark Bendeich)