Wen says China remains committed to loose monetary policy

Premier Wen Jiabao has been repeating himself a lot recently and Thursday’s address to the World Economic Forum in Dalian was no different. China’s economic revival is not yet guaranteed and so the government’s relatively loose monetary policy will remain in place for the time being, Wen told the audience. On the one hand, it must be frustrating having to continually put out fires lit by speculators (although Wen has probably grown used to the domestic stock market behaving like a small child). On the other, at least he doesn’t have to think up new material for his speeches. Based on the August data, which was published today, China’s economy appears to be in pretty good shape. Industrial production continues to rebound while fixed-asset investment remains strong. Consumer prices declined once again, but most market watchers are preoccupied with reining in likely inflation in the months to come. The talk in Dalian focused more on weakness in the US than relative strength in China, the award for most cutting remarks going to Zhu Min, vice president of Bank of China, who lambasted Wall Street bankers for being over confident, myopic and in denial that the financial crisis ever happened. Climate change was also on the agenda in Dalian (try finding an agenda it doesn’t appear on between now and December). Wen stuck to the party line that the burden of emissions cuts must fall primarily on the developed world, but there was more food for thought in two studies published yesterday. The China Greentech Report 2009 envisages a clean technology market worth as much as US$1 trillion a year in China, while researchers from Harvard believe China could cut its emissions by 30% in 20 years if wind power accounted for half of its electricity demand. Call us cynics, but pipe dreams, anyone?