Beijing: The world's two largest economies need to address "global macroeconomic and financial challenges" as well as their respective "economic prospects" and further talks are expected to result from a meeting of top Chinese and US financial officials.
At the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang held face-to-face talks for the first time in four months.
The meeting between Yellen and the head of the Chinese central bank was seen as more symbolic as Yi is expected to resign as governor following a decision by the Chinese Communist Party's 376-member Central Committee, the party's elite and supreme decision-maker. This happened after the meeting of President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden at the G-20 summit.
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Yellen said on Twitter that she looked forward to "future engagement" with Chinese economic officials and the two discussed "global macroeconomic and financial challenges, including the economic prospects of our two countries." After the meeting, a PBOC statement described the exchange as "constructive".
The next step should be talks on specific bilateral issues such as trade, investment and technology, according to He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies in Beijing.
Beijing and Washington will have to deal with a number of issues in the future, such as the widely discussed tariffs on most Chinese goods coming into the US, the expansion of US technology controls, and more traditional problems such as market restrictions and intellectual property rights.
However, given that Beijing will soon reshuffle cabinet officials in the wake of last month's 20th Party Congress, which could include trade negotiators, no concrete talks are expected in the near future.
Vice Premier Liu He, who helped negotiate the first phase of the trade deal with the Trump administration in January 2020, could not attend Xi and Biden's meeting as the 70-year-old is due to retire in March.
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Biden said earlier this year that he was considering reversing some of the Trump administration's tariffs, and Yellen previously called for the removal of some trade tariffs to help reduce US inflation.
However, in the most recent review in August, goods with a market value of approximately US$16 billion were taxed at 25%. While she gave no indication that the tariffs would be lifted, US Trade Representative Catherine Tai said on Tuesday that Washington was in contact with Beijing and was "optimistic about their ability to manage an important and complex relationship with regard to tariffs". ". was".
Biden expressed concern about China's anti-market economic practices during their meeting and declared that Washington would continue to "compete vigorously" with Beijing.
Anodo Economics, a macroeconomic and political forecasting company with offices in London, said improved relations between the US and China would result in increased communication. But the fundamental course of events remains unchanged, with both China and the US determined to compete for supremacy.
As a result of several aggressive interest rate hikes, the US is set to ease its 40-year high inflation rate, but China faces a rapid economic slowdown due to its zero-Covid policy and property market slump.
According to the International Monetary Fund, China's economy grew by 3% in the first nine months of the year, with full year growth forecast to be around 3.2%.
In October, China's exports also slowed, falling 0.3% from a year earlier, after rising 5.7% in September. Officials are making more efforts to address domestic problems, including improving coronavirus control procedures, while helping small businesses and real estate developers.
According to Meng Wei, spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission, "We have seen that the domestic epidemic situation is still serious, and the global environment is still complex. More work needs to be done to revive the economy in the fourth quarter.
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Finally, we must seize the opportunity to promote further economic reforms.