Bank of China forecasts 6.5% GDP growth for 2019

[Photo/VCG]

Bank of China Ltd forecasted the gross domestic product in China will grow 6.5 percent in 2019, 0.1 percentage points lower than this year's estimated GDP growth.

"Faced with new economic challenges, Chinese authorities have taken a series of strong policy measures which will take effect gradually and will be favorable for steady economic growth next year," said the country's fourth largest State-owned commercial lender by assets in a report released on Wednesday.

China has adopted a more vigorous fiscal policy and accelerated local government bond issuance. Next year the country will speed up implementation of major projects according to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), use funds raised through local government debt and public-private partnerships for these projects as soon as possible and attract private investments in the projects.

The central and local governments will also take further steps to create a fair and competitive market environment, improve the quality of regulatory approval services and reduce corporate taxes and fees, according to the report.

Bank of China expected infrastructure investments to rebound in 2019 and private sector investments to grow steadily or even faster.

It estimated the amount of new yuan-denominated loans will hit about 16 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) next year, increasing more than 1 trillion yuan year-on-year.