2016年CRI Chinese Finance Minister Blasts Rating Agencies Bias（在线收听）

Lou Jiwei made the remarks Friday in Washington in the wake of the recent downgrading of China's outlook by two U.S. credit rating agencies. 

He says the outlook fails to reflect the real picture of the Chinese economy. 

"We have just published the data for first quarter's GDP growth, which is 6.7% growth and still very high. This 6.7% is a bit below our previous performance. I think this is still within our expectation."

He noted that while the scale of local government debt is still high, the central government's debt ratio is very low. And measures have been taken to bring the size of local government debt under control. 

In addition, Lou pointed out that market assessments of China's sovereign bonds have always been higher than the ratings given by those agencies. 

"I really hope the credit rating agencies could have more effective communications with the countries rated by them which will help them come to more comprehensive and objective assessment of the economic situation of the country and the measures that are taken by those countries."

Lou Jiwei also pointed out that China's supply-side reform has yield major achievements. Deregulation, price reform and free flow of resources are the three major measures that have been taken. These reforms, according to Lou, will benefit the economy in the long run.