China Vice President Pledges Continued, Sustainable 2019 Growth

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China's vice president said the world's second-largest economy has delivered “significant” growth and pledged to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that it won't falter.

“There will be a lot of uncertainties in 2019, but something that is certain is that China's economy, China's growth, will continue and will be sustainable,” Wang Qishan said in response to a question after a making a keynote speech to business leaders Wednesday.

Wang's comments followed a government report Monday that gross domestic product expanded 6.6 percent last year, the slowest pace since 1990 and in line with estimates. “This is a pretty significant number, not low at all,” Wang said.

Also Monday, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to maintain political stability in an unusual meeting of top leaders -- a fresh sign the ruling Communist Party is more concerned about the social implications of the slowing economy. Xi told officials the party needs greater efforts “to prevent and resolve major risks,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

In his comment on the pace of growth, Wang said the party “is trying to remind people that speed does matter, but what really matters for the time being is the quality, structure and efficiency of our economic development.”

Wang, during his speech, mounted a vigorous defense of globalization and offered a thinly veiled rebuke of President Donald Trump's economic policies, warning the international order was under assault from “unilateralism, protectionism and populism.”

--With assistance from Ye Xie.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net

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