NEW AIRCRAFT: Two ARJ21-700 aircraft roll off the assembly line on December 30, 2013 in Shanghai. The dual-turbofan planes will be delivered to Chengdu Airlines Co. Ltd. by the end of 2014 (PEI XIN)

New Nuclear Plant

The first generating unit of the Yangjiang Nuclear Power Plant in south China's Guangdong Province was connected to the power grid and began trial operations on December 31, 2013.

The plant, which cost an estimated 73.2 billion yuan ($12.1 billion), is scheduled to start operations in a few months.

Construction of the first unit of the second nuclear power plant in Guangdong started in mid-December 2008. Its six units will generate 48 billion kWh of electricity within a year after going into commercial operations around January 2019.

The Yangjiang plant will reduce coal consumption by 15.6 million tons of coal a year. It can also help cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 38.3 million tons and sulfur dioxide by 370,000 tons annually.

Prudent Policy

China should continue its current prudent monetary policy and maintain appropriate liquidity in 2014, the monetary policy committee advised the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, on December 31.

The PBC should also keep money supply and total social financing growing at a reasonable pace, and optimize financing and credit structures, said the statement, which came after a regular quarterly meeting of the committee.

The central bank should embed reforms in its daily macroeconomic management and continue improving the efficiency of China's financial market, it said.

More work should be done on interest rate liberalization, reforming the yuan exchange rate regime and keeping the yuan exchange rate stable at a reasonable and balanced level, it said.

The 15-member monetary policy committee, headed by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, is a consultative body for the forming of monetary policy by the PBC.

The committee is usually comprised of senior government officials from the finance ministry, statistics bureau and other financial regulators, as well as academics. It meets quarterly to make policy suggestions.