The National Development and Reform Commission responded to some hot issues, such as the declining Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) in November and new progress in corporate deleveraging, at a press conference on Dec 14.

In November, China’s manufacturing industry PMI was 50 percent, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the previous month. NDRC’S spokesperson Meng Wei said that characteristics of continuous improvement in the manufacturing industry structure emerged gradually, and that on the whole, the annual growth target of about 6.5 percent could be achieved.

He added that PMI in equipment manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing and consumer products manufacturing industry was 50.5 percent, 51.7 percent, and 51.6 percent, respectively, up 0.6 percentage points, 0.1 percentage point, and 0.8 percentage points, from the previous month, higher than the overall level in the manufacturing industry.

Meng said that GDP growth in the first three quarters reached 6.7 percent and continued to stay in a reasonable range. Also, consumer prices remained basically stable; investment in the manufacturing industry recovered to a higher level in recent years; import and export continued to grow rapidly; foreign capital utilization expanded steadily; income growth basically synchronized with economic growth, and the target of adding new employment in urban areas was reached ahead of schedule.

China would continue to maintain the continuity and stability of macro-policies and improve them according to the needs of market entities, Meng said. In addition, efforts should be made to adhere to supply-side reform, and promote the reform of streamlining administration, combining power delegation with enhanced supervision, and optimizing government services.

To push forward corporate deleveraging, NDRC helped prospective companies in high debt and high quality with deleveraging and debt-reduction through debt-to-equity swaps and other market-oriented measures, and encouraged inefficient and ineffective companies to withdraw from the market through bankruptcy according to laws, according to Meng.

Statistics show that the asset-liability ratio of above-scale industrial enterprises was 56.7 percent by the end of October, 0.5 percentage points lower than in the same period last year. Meng said the ministry will continue efforts in corporate deleveraging with related departments.