THE Chinese government's remark of a possible "fine-tuning" of policies does not necessarily mean that credit control will ease or that curbs on China's property market will be reversed but rather it is to secure stable economic growth, central bank adviser Xia Bin said yesterday.

China should still stick to a prudent monetary policy stance and the fine-tuning of policies will target and complement areas where the financial system has not been giving effective support due to loopholes in the system, Xia said.

He was referring to examples like ensuring that small businesses and start-up companies can get access to credit.

The focus of the present policy adjustment should still be on the fiscal front, Xia, an academic adviser on the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee and a researcher at the State Council's Development Research Center, said.

"Fine-tuning does not mean loosening restrictions on property sector," he stressed.

He added that it was critical to skillfully engineer China's real estate market next year because it's related to investment and growth, and to avoid a "free-fall" in property prices.

"Fine-tuning is not only about by cutting reserve ratio or reducing interest rates - open market operation is also one type of fine-tuning," Xia said.

"The goal of fine-tuning is to secure a growth rate between 8 and 9 percent," Xia said.

China's economy expanded 9.1 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter. The growth was slower than 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first three months of the year.

Source:Shanghaidaily