1. Ensuring stable employment from a strategic perspective

 

Increased efforts to ensure people's livelihoods and stabilize employment in an overarching manner were emphasized at a recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. We need to take an employment-oriented approach in economic development, improve employment promotion mechanisms, and prioritize employment to a strategic level. Efforts should be made to promote the matching of the supply and demand sides of labor market to continuously enhance the driving force of employment in the process of building a modern industrial system.

 

2. Multiple efforts needed to boost capital markets 

 

Currently, China's economy is in a critical period of recovery and development, facing numerous challenges such as stabilizing growth and expanding domestic demand. As a hub that drives the whole economy, an active capital market can attract more investors to participate, guide capital to play its role, support technological innovation of enterprises, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading; it can also increase residents' wealth and income, boost public consumption, and play a leverage role in promoting economic and social development.

 

3. Solid progress to deepen and upgrade state-owned enterprise (SOEs) reform

 

In a teleconference on preparations for a campaign to deepen and upgrade SOEs reform, it is pointed out that the campaign should aim at serving national strategies and focus on boosting core competitiveness and functions. The three-year action of SOEs reform has completed the main goals and tasks, but some deep-seated institutional obstacles that constrain the development of SOEs still need to be further addressed. We must continue our efforts by adhering to the problem- and goal-oriented approaches.

 

 

1. The State Council General Office recently released a draft of measures to restore and expand consumption. The measures include increasing residents' incomes via promoting employment, boosting consumption of big-ticket products, supporting people's demand for buying their first homes as well as the demand for upgraded housing, improving the basic system and support policies for housing security, expanding the supply of affordable rental housing, and focusing on the housing problems of new citizens, young people, and other disadvantaged groups in the housing market.

 

2. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and several other government agencies on August 1 unveiled a series of detailed measures designed to tackle prominent problems facing private enterprises and boost their vitality and confidence.

 

 

1. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in the first half of this year, China’s trade in services maintained steady growth, with trade value totaled RMB 3135.84 billion, up 8.5 percent year on year. Among them, exports reached RMB 1323.22 billion, down 5.9 percent, and imports amounted to RMB 1812.62 billion, up 22.1 percent, with deficit of RMB 489.4 billion.

 

2. According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Chinese foreign exchange market recorded total transactions of RMB 21.89 trillion in June this year. From January to June, a total of RMB 123.76 trillion was traded in the Chinese foreign exchange market.

 

3. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in the first half of this year, the gross income of major cultural and culture-related enterprises in China reached RMB 5935.7, up 7.3 percent year on year.

 

4. Data from the Ministry of Finance showed that from January to June this year, the total gross income of China’s state-owned enterprises amounted to RMB 41,018.82 billion, up 4.9 percent year on year. The profit of state-owned enterprises totaled RMB 2,377.98 billion, up 5.0 percent year on year.

 

5. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first half of this year, China's lithium-ion battery industry continued to grow, with an output of more than 400 GWh, up more than 43 percent year on year. The revenue of the lithium battery industry reached RMB 600 billion.

 

6. Data from People’s Bank of China showed that as of the end of second quarter of 2023, outstanding yuan loans issued by financial institutions increased 11.3 percent year on year to RMB 230.58 trillion. There is a rise of RMB 15.73 trillion in yuan loans in the first half of 2023, an acceleration of RMB 2.06 trillion year on year.

  

7. According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first half of this year, China exported 2.341 million automobile vehicles, an increase of 76.9 percent year on year; with the value reaching USD 46.42 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times.

 

8. According to China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, in the first half of this year, China's total national logistics amounted to RMB 160.6 trillion, up 4.8 percent year on year, with an increase of 0.3 percentage point over the January-May period.

 

9. According to the Ministry of Transport, in the first half of this year, the fixed asset investment in China’s transportation sector reached RMB 1.83 trillion, up 9.1 percent year on year.

 

10. According to China Iron and Steel Association, in the first half of this year, both the production and exports of iron and steel achieved growth. Steel output reached 536 million tons, up 1.3 percent year on year, with pig iron production of 452 million tons, an increase of 2.7 percent year on year; rolled steel production of 677 million tons, an increase of 4.4 percent year on year; and rolled steel exports of 43.58 million tons, up 31.3 percent year on year.

 

 

(Source: Economic Daily)