China have to deepen reforms: Xi

China has ‘no way out’ but to deepen reforms in major areas to surmount the institutional barriers that are restraining growth, Chinese president Xi Jinping said as the world’s second largest economy continued to slowdown. ‘China must break the barriers from entrenched interest groups to further free up social productivity and invigorate creativity,’ Xi said while hailing reform and opening up as the source of China’s progress in recent decades.

‘There is no way out if we stay still or head backward,’ he said at a conference in central Hubei province attended by senior officials from a number of provinces.China’s second quarter GDP slid down to 7.5 per cent with projections that the growth could go down below seven this year as the country struggled to convert the predominantly export-based economy to that of the one based on domestic consumption.