China President Xi: Global Economic Recovery 'Long and Tortuous Process'

Chinese President Xi Jinping said he expected the global economic recovery to be a "long and tortuous process" and added that a 7% growth rate for the Chinese economy was "within a reasonable and expected range".

Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum summit, in Indonesia on 7 October, Xi said the major global economies would have to strengthen their macroeconomic cooperation as they attempt to resolve their structural problems.

Xi also dismissed concerns of a hard landing for the Chinese economy.

However, he said that a "7% annual growth rate [would] suffice" to meet China's medium-term goal of doubling per capita income by 2020.

"To achieve a full recovery and healthy growth of the world economy will be a long and tortuous process," Xi said in a speech on the island of Bali, reported Reuters.

"I'm fully confident in the future of China's economy. The slowdown of the Chinese economy is an intended result of our own regulatory initiatives."

He added that China's fundamentals remained good.

China's new leaders are more interested in reforming the world's second largest economy than stimulating it. Beijing wants to guide the economy away from debt-driven investments, in infrastructure and property, and towards a more sustainable path.

However, the government is treading with caution, when it comes to radical reforms. Analysts from top government think-tanks say the room for reform is limited in China as any dramatic shift in policy could exacerbate a growth slowdown and push the government to revert to tightly controlled market conditions.

US President Barack Obama was to attend the Apec summit. However, he cancelled his Asia trip, owing to the ongoing US government shutdown.

China is the largest trading partner of the US, Russia and several nations in the Asia-Pacific region. The 21 APEC countries account for 55% of global real gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

In August, China's statistics office tried to calm investors and the public, who thought the Chinese economy was slowing down too rapidly, by announcing that it would expand by 7.5% this year.

The Chinese economy expanded at an annualised rate of 7.6% during the first six months of 2013, slower than the 7.7% growth rate in 2012 and 9.3% in 2011.