Japanese, Chinese officials agree on need to boost demand

BEIJING, Oct. 16 Kyodo - apanese and Chinese officials have agreed the two countries need to take steps to boost domestic demand to deal with the slowing global economy, Japan's vice economy, trade and industry minister said Thursday.

Harufumi Mochizuki, the top bureaucrat at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, made the remarks to reporters after holding talks on Wednesday with
his counterpart from the National Development and Reform Commission, China's
economic planning agency.
The meeting came at a time when financial turmoil triggered by the U.S.
subprime mortgage crisis is impacting the world economy.
In the talks, Chinese officials said that the International Monetary Fund's 0.9
point reduction in the world's economic growth projection for next year is
expected to translate into a drop of 0.8 point for China's economic growth,
Mochizuki said.
The IMF last week trimmed its global economic forecast to 3.0 percent for 2009,
down 0.9 point from its view in July.
China, the world's biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves, also said it
does not plan to reduce the percentage of its dollar holdings in the reserves,
according to Mochizuki.