Hu said China must ensure it fully understands the global economic slowdown and its impacts on the Chinese economy in order to take the forward-looking measures needed to achieve stable economic growth.
Hu's comments were made at a routine "study session" session for the Politburo, China's elite top decision-making body, and a summary was carried on state television.
"Whether we can maintain stable but rapid economic development for a fairly long period depends on whether we can adapt to new situations in the world economy, whether we can meet new requirements at home, and whether we can make breakthroughs in transforming our development model," Hu said.
Hu reiterated that China has to transform its wasteful and polluting growth model in order to become more competitive at a global level and to boost the country's ability to weather economic downturns.
"Stabilizing prices and adjusting the structure [of the economy]" are among China's top priorities, Hu added.
China has set targets of eight percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth and 4.8% consumer inflation for 2008.
The world's fourth largest economy grew 10.6% in the first quarter, and consumer inflation was 8.0% in the first three months of this year. (Reuters)
