Opinion

1. Stronger fiscal support for people's livelihoods

Recent statistics released by the Ministry of Finance show that in August, the national general public budget revenue reached RMB 1.24 trillion, maintaining a growth trend with a year-on-year increase of 2 percent. The cumulative growth rate continues to rise. Fiscal expenditures maintained relatively rapid growth, reflecting the continued efforts of more proactive fiscal policies. Key areas received strong expenditure support, effectively underpinning livelihoods and providing solid support for the stable operation of the economy.

The opinions on further ensuring and improving people's livelihoods and focusing on addressing the urgent and difficult issues of the public's concern previously issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, explicitly called for leveraging fiscal transfer payments to promote the equal access of basic public services, increasing the proportion of budgeted investment supporting social undertakings, and continuously refining policies in crucial livelihood areas such as education, health care, social security, and employment to firmly secure the basic needs of people's livelihoods. This sets new and higher requirements for establishing and improving a more robust fiscal mechanism for basic livelihood security, while also guiding the fiscal efforts in improving people's livelihoods.

2. Continuously enhancing the resilience and vitality of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta

In the first seven months of this year, the Yangtze River Delta region delivered an impressive foreign trade performance: the total import and export value reached RMB 9.59 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent, accounting for 37.3 percent of the national total import and export value during the same period. This represents a 0.7 percentage point increase compared to the same period last year. This data shows the significant role of the Yangtze River Delta in China's foreign trade development, driven by the national strategy of regional integration. Although less than 4 percent of the country's land area, the region contributes over one-third of the national foreign trade share. Its stable growth plays a pivotal role in consolidating the foundation of the nation's foreign trade.

Policy

1. China has released a two-year work plan to stabilize growth in the light industry sector, aiming to strengthen its role in supporting steady economic expansion. The plan for 2025 and 2026 has proposed to promote an additional 300 upgraded and innovative products and cultivate 10 characteristic industrial clusters each with an output value exceeding RMB 100 billion.

2. China on September 24 made public a plan for the steady growth of its building materials industry during the 2025-2026 period, setting a goal for the green building materials sector to exceed a revenue of RMB 300 billion (about USD 42.2 billion) by 2026. The plan was released by six government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and outlines goals to consolidate recovery, improve profitability and strengthen technological innovation.

Data

1. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), China has reached new milestones in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. In 2024, the transaction value of national technology contracts reached RMB 6.8 trillion, maintaining double-digit growth for multiple consecutive years.

2. On September 18, the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association released the list of 2025 China's top 500 enterprises in the service sector. Based on companies' operating revenue, the list shows that the threshold for entry reached a new high to RMB 51.1 trillion in 2024. Meanwhile, the average operating revenue per company, exceeding 100-billion-yuan for the first time, hit RMB 102.22 billion.

3. As of the end of August, the cumulative trading volume on China's national carbon emissions trading market reached nearly 700 million tons, with a total turnover of about RMB 48 billion. The total annual turnover in 2024 has set a new record high since the market was launched in 2021.

4. As of September 19, China-Laos Railway has handled more than 15 million metric tons of trading goods, with a total value surpassing RMB 65.3 billion since the railway officially opened in December 2021, according to Kunming Customs.

5. The daily crude oil output of Oil Production Plant No.2 of the Changqing Oilfield in Qingyang, Gansu Province, exceeded the 10,000-ton mark, reaching 10,039 tons on September 20. This milestone marks the establishment of a large oilfield with a daily production capacity of over 10,000 tons in Qingyang, one of China's old revolutionary base areas.

6. China's financial sector has achieved remarkable progress during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), with banking assets nearing RMB 470 trillion at the end of June this year to rank first globally. It has maintained the world's largest foreign exchange reserves for a 20th consecutive year, and secured its second-place standing in both the stock and bond markets.

7. China's Ministry of Commerce announced that from January to August, online sales of home appliances and digital products registered rapid growth, with smart wearables, computers, and mobile phones posting increases of 25.2 percent, 23.7 percent, and 20.2 percent respectively.

8. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's mobile internet user base reached 1.601 billion by the end of August, with a net increase of 31.32 million users since the beginning of this year.

9. The National Energy Administration reported on September 24 that China's electricity market transaction volume reached 655 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in August, up 11.6 percent year on year.

10. A 175,000-cubic-meter liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, independently designed and built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation Dalian Shipbuilding, was officially delivered to China Merchants Energy Shipping on September 24. This marks another significant achievement for China in the high-value-added shipbuilding sector.

(Source: Economic Daily)