Inflationary Pressure From Leadership Transition

来源 :Beijing Review | 被引量 : 0次 | 上传用户:jy1794
下载到本地 , 更方便阅读
声明 : 本文档内容版权归属内容提供方 , 如果您对本文有版权争议 , 可与客服联系进行内容授权或下架
论文部分内容阅读
  Maintaining stability in price levels has always been a major task for macroeconomic controls. In the wake of the U.S. financial crisis, economic stimulus coupled with quantitative easing policies caused China’s overall price levels to run high. The overlap of economic and political cycles, in combination with the loosening of global monetary policies, means the situation in China will not change this year. Rising prices will undoubtedly weaken happiness and erode public welfare.
  Global liquidity will continue to remain loose, due to an easy monetary stance and prudent fiscal policy pursued by countries like the United States and Japan. Last year’s Central Economic Work Conference —an annual meeting that decides economic policy for the year ahead —also forecasted that pressures from potential inflation and asset bubbles would continue to mount.
  In the context of globalization, China adopts a prudent monetary policy and loose fiscal policy, but an easy monetary environment in other countries will bring imported inflationary pressure on China. Meanwhile, the country will also be confronted with rising labor costs, which will impact overall price levels.
  While keeping a watchful eye on imported and cost-driven inflationary pressures, we should pay more attention to political factors. Changes in both central and local leadership will be completed at the 2013 sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. As a leading indicator of competition between government officials, GDP growth is high on the agenda.
  It is widely expected that China’s economic growth rate will rise above 8 percent this year. According to the government reports of the total 31 provincial-level governments, 24 targeted GDP growth at more than 10 percent in 2013.
  Despite booming enthusiasm, options are limited. Although there is a chance for further loosening of monetary policy, it remains unfeasible given already sufficient liquidity.
  Some predict that the budget deficit in 2013 would exceed 1 trillion yuan ($160.6 billion), a record high since 2009. Media reports suggest the 2013 budget draft by the Ministry of Finance allows central and local governments to run deficits of 1.2 trillion yuan ($192.7 billion). For local governments, launching new projects and attracting investment would still play a key role in promoting local economic development.
  Whether the government prints money or expands deficits, investment-driven economic growth of more than 8 percent can only be achieved with sufficient funds. Monetary measures would immediately lead to price rises while fiscal ones can postpone any negative result. However, both will raise price levels.
  As all the money governments spend comes from the people, it’s the people who must eventually pay for price rises. History shows that a transition of leadership is always accompanied by mounting inflationary pressures.
  Increased price levels derived from political factors are totally different from those caused by rising wages and quantitative easing. They are a result of political and economic interaction, which cannot be explained by economic principles alone. To achieve the goal of “keeping overall price levels stable,” more efforts should be made to eliminate effects brought on by political factors.
其他文献
Canadian real estate developers said that the flowing in of Chinese money will keep housing markets stable in Vancouver. The city was recently ranked the second least affordable in the world by Demogr
期刊
As temperatures rise, swans cluster on March 1 as they prepared to leave their winter habitat in Rongcheng, east China’s Shandong Province, to return to north China  The decline is a reflection of Chi
期刊
The future looked bleak for Yunis, a wealthy Persian trader lost in a swirling dust storm in the middle of the Gobi Desert, until the beautiful Yingniang and her father Zhang Shenbi, a painter, came t
期刊
In late February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published its annual statistical bulletin, showing that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) registered an increase of 7.8 percent in 2012, re
期刊
Chinese mobile phone provider ZTE, currently the fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones, launched the first smartphone in the world to use the Mozilla OS Firefox system at the Mobile World Congr
期刊
Oriental Outlook February 28  China’s urbanization speed is picking up. According to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on August 17 last year, the country’s urban population accou
期刊
A concert entitled, “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring,” starring Chinese folk singer Song Zuying, was held in New York City on February 16 in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.  The show
期刊
The Japanese Government ultimately decided against publishing the socalled “related evidence” collected by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces regarding Chinese ships using fire control radar (FCR) again
期刊
As soprano Julia Metzler and baritone Brian Wahlstrom took the stage at New York’s Lincoln Center on February 16, the audience brimmed with enthusiasm in enthusiasm to hear the familiar, bouncy rhythm
期刊
The Chinese Government’s policy approach to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been under debate since the latter conducted its third nuclear test in February. Some critics accused C
期刊