China to keep 2019 growth within reasonable range: politburo

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will keep its economic growth within a reasonable range next year, striving to support jobs, trade and investment while pushing reforms and curbing risks, the country's top decision-making body of the Communist Party, the politburo, said on Thursday.

"We will promote steady growth, promote reform, adjust structure, benefit people's livelihood and prevent risks in a coordinated way, and keep economic operation in a reasonable range," the official news agency Xinhua reported, citing a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping ahead of a key economic meeting in March.

The government has recently launched a raft of measures, including cuts in reserve requirements for banks, tax cuts and more infrastructure spending, to ward off a sharp deceleration in the economy, and further steps to bolster growth are expected.

It will further stabilise employment, the financial sector, foreign trade, investment and market expectations and boost market confidence, Xinhua said.

The politburo called for greater awareness of potential problems in the economy given changes in both external and domestic conditions.

"We should strengthen coordination and cooperation, focus on major contradictions, grasp the pace and strength of the economy, and strive to achieve the best policy mix and the maximum overall effect," it said.

Top leaders are due to map out economic and reform plans for 2019 during an annual Central Economic Work Conference later this month.

China's economic growth slowed to 6.5 percent in the third quarter, the weakest since the global financial crisis, although the full-year expansion could slightly exceed the government's target of around 6.5 percent.

(Reporting by China Monitoring Desk and Kevin Yao; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)