Opinion

1. Key meeting signals stronger policy support to propel economic growth

China has signaled adjustment in its macroeconomic approach for 2025, emphasizing stronger measures to stabilize growth and tackle challenges head-on. A crucial meeting convened on December 9 by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee pledged to adopt a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, alongside strengthening unconventional counter-cyclical adjustments and expanding domestic demand on all fronts.

2. Keep prices at a reasonable level

It can be foreseen that the strengthened implementation of macro policies will create a sound monetary and financial environment for economic growth and price stability, and also help accelerate the formation of a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion between consumption and investment, promoting a higher level of dynamic balance between supply and demand.

Policy

1. China's top economic planner said on December 6 that funds raised through the RMB 1 trillion (about USD 139 billion) ultra-long special treasury bonds this year have all been allocated to support specific projects and programs. Among the total, RMB 700 billion was allocated to implement major national strategies and build up security capacity in key areas, while RMB 300 billion was channeled to fund equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

2. China will further open up futures market to enable qualified foreign institutional investors to trade more types of derivatives, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission on December 7.

3. According to the 3rd World Conference on Science & Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, in order to deepen international cooperation of traditional medicine in the "Belt and Road" countries, China will specially cultivate and train 1,300 Chinese medicine talents from these countries in the next three years, and jointly promote the international exchange and inheritance of Chinese medicine culture.

Data

1. This year, over 110,000 kilometers of rural roads have been built or renovated in China, and a new round of rural road improvement actions has been implemented on promoting information technology development.

2. The number of 5G base stations in China now exceeds 4.1 million, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed on December 6. Currently, 5G technologies have been applied in 80 major sectors of national economy, and 5G network is covering more rural areas, according to the ministry.

3. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 49.3 in November, up 0.5 percentage point from October, official data showed.

4. Sales revenue of home appliances under the policy-backed trade-in program reached RMB 201.97 billion (about USD 28.11 billion) as of December 6, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. Products with the highest energy efficiency level contributed to over 90 percent of the sales revenue. A total of 29.64 million consumers have enjoyed subsidies for their home appliance purchases, lifting the sales volume by 45.85 million units.

5. By the end of 2024, China's installed wind power capacity reached 510 million kilowatts. Its annual new installations account for more than 50 percent of the global total, significantly contributing to world's green development.

6. Recently, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines announced the addition of new routes operated by the domestically produced C919 aircraft, bringing the total number of cities served by the C919 aircraft to 10.

7. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland. On December 9, according to the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, from 1999 to 2023, Guangdong's imports and exports to Macao totaled RMB 307.29 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent. In the first 10 months of this year, the total import and export value of Guangdong-Macao trade has reached RMB 15.88 billion, exceeding the scale of the whole year last year and increasing by 25.7 percent year-on-year.

8. The conceptual development of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project began in the 1950s, with the first phases of its middle and eastern routes becoming operational in late 2014. During the past decade, it has diverted more than 76.7 billion cubic meters of water to the country's northern regions, providing a stable water supply to 45 major cities and more than 185 million people, according to data from the Ministry of Water Resources.

9. From January to November this year, the national railway freight volume was 4.715 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.5 percent, according to the National Railway Administration.

10. In November, China's automobile production and sales volume were 3.437 million and 3.316 million respectively, an increase of 14.7 percent and 8.6 percent month-on-month and 11.1 percent and 11.7 percent year-on-year, with steady growth in production and sales volume for the month, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

(Source: Economic Daily)