The ongoing international financial crisis has landed the world economy in the most difficult situation since last century's Great Depression. In the face of the crisis, countries and the international community have taken various measures to address it. These measures have played an important role in boosting confidence, reducing the consequences of the crisis, and forestalling a meltdown of the financial system and a deep global recession. This crisis is attributable to a variety of factors and the major ones are: inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies and their unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption; excessive expansion of financial institutions in a blind pursuit of profit; lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and rating agencies and the ensuing distortion of risk information and asset pricing; and the failure of financial supervision and regulation to keep up with financial innovations, which allowed the risks of financial derivatives to build and spread. As the saying goes, "A fall in the pit, a gain in your wit," we must draw lessons from this crisis and address its root causes. In other words, we must strike a balance between savings and consumption, between financial innovation and regulation, and between the financial sector and real economy.

　　我们正在经历的这场国际金融危机，使世界经济陷入上世纪大萧条以来最困难的境地。各国和国际社会纷纷采取积极应对措施，对提振信心、缓解危机、防止金融体系崩溃和世界经济深度衰退起到了重要作用。这场危机的原因是多方面的。主要是：有关经济体宏观经济政策不当、长期低储蓄高消费的发展模式难以为继；金融机构片面追逐利润而过度扩张；金融及评级机构缺乏自律，导致风险信息和资产定价失真；金融监管能力与金融创新不匹配，金融衍生品风险不断积聚和扩散。"吃一堑，长一智。"我们必须从中认真吸取教训，正确处理储蓄与消费的关系，金融创新与金融监管的关系，虚拟经济与实体经济的关系，从根本上找到化解危机之策。

　　The current crisis has inflicted a rather big impact on China's economy. We are facing severe challenges, including notably shrinking external demand, overcapacity in some sectors, difficult business conditions for enterprises, rising unemployment in urban areas and greater downward pressure on economic growth.

　　坦率地说，这场危机对中国经济也造成较大冲击，我们正面临严峻挑战。主要是：外部需求明显收缩，部分行业产能过剩，企业生产经营困难，城镇失业人员增多，经济增长下行的压力明显加大。

　　As a big responsible country, China has acted in an active and responsible way during this crisis. We mainly rely on expanding effective domestic demand, particularly consumer demand, to boost economic growth. We have made timely adjustment to the direction of our macroeconomic policy, swiftly adopted a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy, introduced ten measures to shore up domestic demand and put in place a series of related policies. Together, they make up a systematic and comprehensive package plan aimed at ensuring steady and relatively fast economic growth.