Sawt Falasteen - China's leaders vow more 'relaxed' monetary policy in 2025

The world's second-largest economy is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt -- all of which threaten Beijing's official growth target for this year.

Leaders are also eyeing the second term of Donald Trump in the White House, with the president-elect indicating he will reignite his hardball trade policies, fuelling fears of another standoff between the superpowers.

On Monday, the Politburo, the country's top decision-making body, "held a meeting to analyse and study the economic work of 2025", state news agency Xinhua said.

"We must vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and comprehensively expand domestic demand," Xinhua quoted officials as having said.

"Next year we should... implement a more active fiscal policy and an appropriately relaxed monetary policy," they added.

Beijing has unveiled a string of measures since September aimed at bolstering growth, including cutting interest rates, cancelling restrictions on homebuying and easing the debt burden on local governments.

And in October, the central bank said it had cut two key interest rates to historic lows.

But economists have warned that more direct fiscal stimulus aimed at shoring up domestic consumption is needed to restore full health in China's economy as fears of a renewed trade war with the United States mount.

Underscoring the continued sluggish consumption facing China, official data on Monday showed consumer price growth slowed in November.

The consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, came in at 0.2 percent, down from 0.3 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

That was below the 0.4 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Beijing's leadership also said it would intensify an anti-corruption drive, calling for a "high-pressure posture in punishing" graft.

Xi has overseen a wide-ranging campaign against official corruption since coming to power just over a decade ago, with critics saying it also serves as a way to purge political rivals.

Recent efforts have focused on the military, with top official Miao Hua last month joining a host of high-ranking figures to be removed from their positions in just over a year.

Officials on Monday pledged to "strengthen the mechanism for investigating and addressing unhealthy practices and corruption".

They also called for China to "deepen integrated efforts to rectify unhealthy practices and combat corruption", according to state media.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST