Stability is still the key word at China's annual Central Economic Work Conference that closed in Beijing to set tone for the country's 2012 economic and social development.

According to a statement issued after the conference, "making progress while maintaining stability" will be the main theme next year, as China will ensure the exchange rate of the yuan RMB basically stable and will also unswervingly maintain regulation policies on the property market.

As one of the most important economic policy-making events in China, the conference has drawn intense attention at home and abroad and triggered heated discussion about the future of the world's No.2 economy.

Some think that there is no big policy change at this meeting and the key word stability is nothing novel for the country's economic development. But many others believe that it is a sensible choice to maintain stable growth given the international and domestic situations.

International situation put more pressure on China

The year of 2011 is not an easy one for the world economy. The global financial crisis is still hunting and the industrial nations are deeply mired in a substantial slowdown. The eurozone sovereign debt crisis, for example, has worsened and the U.S. economic recovery remains weak.

Under the economic globalization, every country suffers and has to pay the cost. Quantitative easing policies, which are likely to be put into place in the United States and Europe to help solve the debt crises there, may create additional inflationary pressure on China, according to Wang Tongsan, head of the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Faltering external demand and a decelerating economy at home has continued to weigh on China's foreign trade and slowed its export growth in 2011.

The country's foreign trade rose 17.6 percent year-on-year to 334.4 billion U.S. dollars in November, compared with 21.6 percent in October, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The GAC data shows that China's exports increased 13.8 percent from a year earlier to 174.46 billion U.S. dollars, the slowest growth since February.

"The global economic slump and sluggish external demand left little room for sharp increases in China's export volume. In the meantime, most Chinese exports are manufactured goods that face full competition and exporters tend to wage 'price wars' when the world economy is weak, thus squeezing China's exports," said Zhang Yansheng, a researcher of the Institute for International Economics Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner.