China's Supply-side Structural Reforms for Sustainable Growth in the New Normal Era

Abstract

One of the keywords of the Chinese economy in 2018 is "supply-side structural reform" (SSSR). China's economic growth rate reached 6.9% in 2017, rebounding for the first time since entering the New Normal (新常態)1 era of China, and climbing higher than previous forecasts by international institutes. The Chinese government held a briefing on how SSSR is one of the main causes of good performance, and presented to implement SSSR as one of its key tasks in 2018 at the Central Economic Work Conference, held in December 2017. Supply-side structural reform is an unfamiliar term not found in economics. It refers to one of the macroeconomic policies of the Xi Jinping administration that have been employed since November 2015. China’s supply-side reform largely differs in their background and implementation from Reaganomics, which was based on the supply-side economic policies carried out by the United States in the 1980s.