Challenges tackled with financial innovation

The Central Economic Work Conference, which ended on Dec 10, noted that more "front-loaded measures" would be taken to stabilize growth. It also confirmed that new tax breaks and fee cuts would be introduced for businesses and infrastructure investment would be shored up next year.

Su Jingchun, an associate professor at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, or CAFS, who has spent most of her research career studying the nation's income distribution and fiscal spending mechanism, believes such action will help the smaller business community in China survive and thrive, sustaining growth at a difficult time.

"There has been some notable innovation in the fiscal mechanism in the past two years, and we, as researchers, believe these changes will be conducive to China's long-term healthy growth, particularly for economic recovery," she said.