China's economy to remain beacon and engine in 2012

BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's economy will not break. Instead, it will sustain its robust vitality and remain a beacon of hope and an engine of growth for the still fragile world economy in 2012.

Some Western analysts, including Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who is known not only for his economic insights but for his harsh judgement on China's economy, recently warned of a possible crash of the Chinese economy in the near future.

They claimed that slowing growth and declining stock and commodity prices were signals that the country's property bubble was set to burst.

Such warnings, however, are simply far-fetched and do not reflect the reality of China's economy.

At the nadir of the 2008 financial crisis, China was among the first countries to bounce back. In 2009, China reached a growth rate of 8.7 percent, outperforming not only developed countries, whose economies dropped 3.2 percent, but also emerging ones, which enjoyed an average growth of 2.4 percent.

China's economic growth, though on a slower track recently, is still expected to reach 9 percent in 2011, contrasting starkly with the anemic growth in Europe and the United States.

Those who warned of an economic collapse of China also underestimated the Chinese government's capacities to avert financial risks.

China has in its arsenal a powerful and flexible tool of macroeconomic regulation which allows the country to take effective measures to avoid risks in the property sector.