'Follow consumption-led growth'

BOAO, Hainan - China's continued economic growth hinges on domestic consumption as the major role played earlier by exports and investment will decline in future, a Chinese leader and experts said during the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA).

As the world's third-biggest economy, China must pursue a consumption-driven economic growth model, Xi Jinping, China's vice-president, said.

"We must develop the economy mainly by relying on the domestic market and attach great importance to domestic demand, especially consumption demand, in driving economic development," he said in a speech during the opening ceremony of the BFA last Friday. Fan Gang, the director of the National Economic Research Institute of the China Reform Foundation, pointed out that the "shyness" in consumption is in fact not about "spending". Rather, the crux lies in the relatively low income of the Chinese people.