China will "improve" policy measures to stimulate domestic consumption in the second half of 2010 while trying to balance growth and inflationary pressures, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday. China's growth cooled in the second quarter, but top officials have said the slowdown is in line with the aim of expanding the share of consumption at the expense of net exports and heavy industry.
"We must keep expanding domestic demand, especially consumption, and make sure we implement and improve policies to stimulate consumption," Wen said at a meeting with non-Communist political parties. China will also push forward with reforms to tax, finance, pricing, social security and real estate, President Hu Jintao told the meeting, according to an account carried by the official Xinhua news agency.
Some analysts fear a bubble is building in parts of the property market, something that the ruling Communists fear in turn could endanger social stability by fuelling resentment over widening income inequalities. China's gross domestic product growth slowed to 10.3 percent in the second quarter from 11.9 percent in the first quarter, fanning worries that the momentum of the expansion would flag further as the year wears on.