China Injects Momentum into Global Economy

China's economy is gaining new momentum, as sustained growth across key sectors like domestic consumption, foreign investment and high-tech industry, demonstrates the nation's economic strength, resilience and vitality.

The World Bank has just raised its forecast for China's GDP growth in 2024 and 2025 by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage point respectively, reflecting a series of policy-easing measures recently announced by China as well as the strength of the country's exports.

On the upside, higher-than expected fiscal spending and more decisive policy actions to stabilize the property sector, following recent guidance from policymakers, could lift the growth forecast above the current baseline projection, according to the World Bank.

"Expanding opportunities for everyone to move up the economic ladder is important for achieving China's goal of common prosperity," Elitza Mileva, World Bank lead economist for China, said. "Equal opportunities and greater social mobility will, in turn, support growth through higher human capital and greater entrepreneurship and risk taking by economically secure households."

The tone-setting annual Central Economic Work Conference recently held in Beijing noted that the Chinese economy is underpinned by a stable foundation, multiple advantages, strong resilience and great potential, and the supporting conditions and fundamental trends for long-term sound economic development have not changed.

The conference proposed implementing more proactive and impactful macro policies, expand domestic demand, and promote the integrated development of sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation.

The latest released national economic census showed that the country's economy has achieved progress while maintaining stability over the past five years, with great strides in key areas including economic scale, structural optimization, and innovation-driven and digitally fueled development.

The census has revised the country's GDP of 2023 to 129.427 trillion RMB, up 2.7 percent from initial estimates, based on an economic census conducted once every five years.

"Over the past five years (2018-2023), China's contribution to global economic growth has averaged around 30 percent, making it the largest driver of growth for the world economy," Kang Yi, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, said.

China's digital economy has experienced robust growth, injecting new momentum into its social and economic development. At the end of 2023, there were 2.916 million corporate enterprises engaged in the core industries of digital economy, with 36.159 million persons employed. In 2023, the business revenue of China's digital economy reached 48.4 trillion RMB.

Meanwhile, the country's economic structure has been continuously optimized. The census showed that a total of 33.27 million legal entities were engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries at the end of 2023, up 52.7 percent compared with that of 2018.

Looking forward, China's economy is on track for long-term sustained growth, given its ultra-large domestic market, the advancement of industrial transformation and upgrading, a thriving digital economy, and comprehensive deepening of reforms.

A more buoyant Chinese economy is particularly important to emerging economies because China has become the most critical development partner, including in green energy transition and green development, according to Adhere Cavince, an international relations expert, adding that the country's development success has brought prosperity to many countries and territories around the world.

Source: Science and Technology Daily