China’s economic growth exceeded expectations in 2017，putting a halt to the year-on-year slowdown seen since 2010. The rare combination of a global economic recovery and an improved foreign trade environment helped turn net exports into a positive contributor to growth from a negative one. Meanwhile，domestic consumption held steady and there was gradual progress in the transformation and upgrading of the economy. Investment growth slowed due to deleveraging，but the rapid growth of the service sector，especially the new drivers of growth such as the Internet，mobile payment and new energy sources，put in a positive performance.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China，held late last year，stressed that unbalanced development was a critical issue facing China. Economic policy should shift from emphasizing rapid growth to the pursuit of high-quality growth，and this should be the main thrust of China’s economic development in future. The Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2017 made it clear that promoting high-quality development was a necessary requirement for maintaining healthy and sustained economic development. In the future the emphasis will be on deepening supply-side structural reforms，reducing existing economic and financial risks and preventing new ones，controlling pollution and relieving poverty. This could have an impact on economic growth in 2018.

It is likely that China’s economic growth in 2018 will continue the decelerating trend evident since the fourth quarter of 2017. The global economic recovery will continue to boost China’s export rebound. Wages and restructuring will support consumption. New areas of economic momentum will play an active role. However，given the series of tightening policies and the deepening of financial de-leveraging，the gradual increase of real estate control policies and the intensification of pollution prevention and control，the growth rate of investment may slow further. The nation's economic growth rate is expected to slow to 6.3% in 2018 from 6.9% in 2017.

In terms of macroeconomic policies，authorities will maintain a prudent and neutral monetary stance with a proactive fiscal policy. After the 19th National Congress，a series of tough regulatory measures were introduced. The State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee was set up，new rules for the asset management business were introduced，the establishment of new networks for micro financing were temporarily halted and there were new controls on real estate funds. These all demonstrated the conviction of economic decision makers to continue efforts to deleverage. In addition，with the overall shift in monetary policy of the world’s central banks，it is expected that China’s monetary policy will be stable to slightly tighter in actual implementation this year.