There will be no change in China's macro-economic policy orientation amid the world economic downturn, said an official with the country's economic planner on Friday.
Zhu Zhixin, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a State Council Information Office conference that the overseas market is still severe and the country's economic policy direction will remain unchanged.
Although the country's economy has shown signs of recovery, it still faces of many difficulties in maintaining stability, he said.
"Any change in the macro-economic policy would disturb the recovery or rebound momentum, or even perish the previous efforts and achievements," he said. "Efforts to keep a stable and fast economic development is the top priority of the country in the second half."
Boosted by a surge in investment driven by the stimulus, China's economic growth quickened to 7.9 percent in the second quarter, up from 6.1 percent in the first quarter and 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
When asked whether a large loan extension would result in inflation, Su Ning, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, said the country's moderately easy monetary policy has played an important role in boosting investors' confidence, enlarging domestic consumption, and inflation should not be a current concern.
"In the first half, most of the loans were channelled to support the construction of several major projects, and less projects are expected in the second half," Su added.
Chinese banks advanced a record 7.37 trillion yuan (1.08 trillion U.S. dollars) in new loans during the first half of the year, exceeding the full-year target of 5 trillion yuan.
Comparatively, China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, dipped 1.1 percent in the first half from a year earlier. The producer price index, a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 5.9 percent year on year in the first half.
Su denied the market talk that China changed its monetary policy, saying the government fine-tuned the monetary policy all the time as a means to keep abreast of the changing economic climate.
"There is no change in China's monetary policy.
The central bank would stick to its moderately easy monetary policy to consolidate the country's economic recovery," said Su.
The country would use "market tools" to guide appropriate lending growth during the second half of this year, instead of controlling loan scale of the country's commercial banks, he said.
The cental bank reaffirmed on Wednesday in a quarterly report that its major task was to continue fostering steady economic growth by maintaining credit policy continuity and stability as the economy was still in a crucial phase.
Officials from the NDRC, the central bank and the financial ministry also reiterated the importance of promoting the development of private-owned companies, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Ding Xuedong, vice minister of the financial ministry, said at the conference that the country's efforts to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with funds support, tax breaks and other favorable policies had played a positive role for the development of such companies.
In the future, the country would further enhance fiscal and tax support to these companies, Ding said.
So far this year, China has allocated 9.6 billion yuan in funds to help small and medium-sized enterprises to expand overseas markets, and promote innovation ability, an increase of 110 percent over the same period last year.
These enterprises get more loans this year from the country's lenders. The loan balance of small and medium-sized enterprises stood at 13.7 trillion yuan by the end of June, representing an increase of 31.3 percent year on year.