High-quality development remains a key focus of China's economic priorities for 2025, with an emphasis on boosting domestic demand and ensuring employment stability. This blueprint emerged from the annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on December 11 and 12.
The foundation for these strategies was set in September, when the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China reaffirmed its commitment to advancing reform and opening up. The focus was on harnessing consumer-driven growth, improving public welfare by raising incomes for low- and middle-income households, upgrading consumption patterns, nurturing new consumer formats, protecting basic livelihoods, and creating employment opportunities for young people, rural migrants, and recent graduates.
Since then, a series of targeted and coordinated policies have been implemented to build a resilient and inclusive economic ecosystem. The goal is to energize economic development by reinforcing the twin pillars of expanding domestic demand and stabilizing employment.
Consumption acts as a critical link between economic development and people's livelihoods. In the first three quarters of 2024, total retail sales of consumer goods reached an impressive 35.36 trillion yuan, marking a 3.3 percent year-on-year growth. This steady increase highlights the effectiveness of policies designed to expand domestic demand and stimulate consumption, showcasing the resilience of China's vast market and its untapped growth potential.
To enhance consumption, policies introduced in March and July aimed to accelerate the replacement of outdated consumer goods with new ones. The State Council issued guidelines for the high-quality development of service consumption and measures to create new consumption scenarios and cultivate new growth points in consumption. Local governments have tailored these guidelines to meet local needs by expanding subsidized products, enhancing subsidies, simplifying application procedures, and boosting consumer enthusiasm.
Consumption promotion activities have also yielded impressive results. In November, the Ministry of Commerce partnered with five international consumer center cities – Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing – to launch the China International Consumer Center City Quality Consumption Month in Shanghai. These cities account for over 13 percent of national retail sales, host 32 percent of China's time-honored brands, and facilitate more than 50 percent of consumer goods imports. This initiative showcased their leadership in driving consumption and fostering innovation.
The month-long event aimed to enhance the consumption structure through dynamic activities, innovating consumption scenarios and formats to unlock greater market vitality and elevate consumer confidence.
While consumption remains a key driver of growth, employment stabilization is the other critical pillar of China's economic strategy. In the first quarter of 2024, over 10 million new urban jobs were created, reducing the surveyed urban unemployment rate to 5.1 percent in September – a 0.2 percentage point drop from the previous month.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
