Important! New Trends in Economic Work for 2025 from the Central Political Bureau Meeting

On December 9th, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting to analyze and study the economic work for 2025.

The meeting summarized and analyzed this year's economic work, comprehensively and objectively assessed the current economic development situation, and made a series of deployments for next year's economic work, which will further strengthen the confidence of all parties in development, actively and proactively respond to difficulties and challenges, consolidate and enhance the positive trend of economic recovery, and lay a solid foundation for a good start to the "14th Five-Year Plan."

The main goals and tasks for this year's economic and social development will be successfully completed

2024 is a key year for achieving the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan."

Since the beginning of this year, facing a more complex international and domestic environment, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with Xi Jinping as the core, has united and led the entire party and people of all ethnic groups across the country to respond calmly, implement comprehensive policies, and the overall economic operation has been stable and progressing. The meeting believed that China's economic strength, technological strength, and comprehensive national strength have continued to increase. New productive forces are steadily developing, reform and opening up are deepening continuously, risk resolution in key areas is orderly and effective, and social welfare guarantees are solid and strong. The main goals and tasks for economic and social development this year will be successfully completed.

"In the face of a complex and severe situation, this year's achievements in economic and social development are hard-won, fully confirming the correctness and foresight of the Central Committee's judgment on the situation and decision-making deployments," said Guo Liyan, deputy director of the Economic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research. The series of important judgments made by the meeting regarding this year's economic situation will help further strengthen development confidence and better stabilize development expectations.

Currently, China's development faces many uncertainties and challenges. To do a good job in next year's economic work, it is necessary to firmly establish a winning confidence.

"Further comprehensively deepen reforms," "expand high-level opening up," "implement more proactive and effective macro policies," "expand domestic demand," "stabilize the real estate and stock markets"… In response to next year's economic work, the Central Political Bureau meeting made a series of important deployments.

"The series of work deployments made by the meeting adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, with clear direction and practical strength, better coordinating development and security, balancing current and long-term goals, and releasing a strong signal of unwavering promotion of high-quality development," Guo Liyan said. It is necessary to effectively enhance the sense of responsibility and urgency in doing economic work, accelerate the implementation of a package of incremental policies, and continuously consolidate the positive trend of economic recovery, achieving high-quality completion of the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan."

Implement more proactive and effective macro policies

Implement more proactive fiscal policies and moderately loose monetary policies, enrich and improve the policy toolbox, strengthen extraordinary counter-cyclical adjustments, and play a good "combination punch" of policies… Regarding next year's macro policy orientation, the meeting released a clear signal of "more proactive and effective."

"Implementing more proactive and effective macro policies is based on the successful experience of previous macro-control and is also a scientific deployment based on domestic and international situations," said Xu Guangjian, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China. In response to the relatively complex domestic and international situation next year, the meeting proposed "strengthening extraordinary counter-cyclical adjustments," which is conducive to further improving the foresight of macro policies and better guiding and boosting expectations.

The meeting proposed to implement more proactive fiscal policies. In this regard, Xu Guangjian believes that next year's fiscal policy will be more proactive and effective, expanding total demand with necessary expenditure efforts to boost domestic demand and counter external uncertainties "The 'moderately loose monetary policy' statement from the meeting has drawn attention.

The expression of 'monetary policy' has shifted from 'prudent' to 'moderately loose', which means that our country continues to adhere to a supportive monetary policy stance, maintaining reasonable liquidity and further reducing the comprehensive financing costs for enterprises and residents, thereby creating a favorable monetary and financial environment for promoting sustained economic recovery," said Wen Bin, chief economist of China Minsheng Bank. This marks the first time in over a decade that our monetary policy has reiterated 'moderately loose'. In terms of actual operation, the monetary policy is flexibly and moderately implemented. Since the beginning of this year, the market generally feels that our monetary policy is in a state of prudent but slightly loose.

Comprehensively Expand Domestic Demand

Connecting economic development with social livelihood, domestic demand composed of consumption and investment is an important engine for economic growth.

The meeting proposed, "to vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and comprehensively expand domestic demand," which reflects a consistent requirement while further highlighting the clear orientation towards expanding domestic demand.

Since the beginning of this year, with policies such as replacing old consumer goods to promote consumption further taking effect, the consumption demand of Chinese residents has continued to be released. In October, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 4.8% year-on-year, accelerating by 1.6 percentage points from the previous month, marking the highest monthly growth rate since March.

"Currently, we need to continue to consolidate the momentum of consumption recovery, promote the rebound of consumption in automobiles, home appliances, and other sectors, and enhance the expansion and quality of digital consumption, experiential consumption, and cultural tourism consumption, continuously releasing the potential of domestic demand to better meet the people's needs for a better life," said Chen Lifeng, a researcher at the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Investment, in the short term, is demand, while in the medium to long term, it is supply. Improving investment efficiency helps better expand domestic demand and benefit people's livelihoods.

"To improve investment efficiency, we need to maintain reasonable government investment intensity while further optimizing the investment structure," said Xu Guangjian, emphasizing the need to leverage government investment to drive overall social investment and further improve various institutional regulations to promote investment efficiency through refined management.

Shape New Advantages in Industrial Development through Technological Innovation

The meeting proposed to lead the development of new quality productivity through technological innovation and build a modern industrial system.

Since the beginning of this year, our new quality productivity has developed steadily, and the industrial structure has continued to optimize: In the first three quarters, the added value of high-tech manufacturing above designated size nationwide increased by 9.1% year-on-year, and high-tech industry investment grew by 10% year-on-year, with products such as optoelectronic devices and virtual reality equipment maintaining double-digit growth...

Li Wei, an associate researcher at the Industrial Economics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that technological innovation is the core element in developing new quality productivity. The series of deployments from the meeting will further promote the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, promote the integrated development of the real economy with the digital economy, and advanced manufacturing with modern services, cultivating new quality productivity to form more new growth points and continuously accelerate the transformation of old and new driving forces.

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to strengthen the overall planning of innovation resources and the organization of forces, promoting the integrated development of technological innovation and industrial innovation. This meeting once again emphasized "promoting the integrated development of technological innovation and industrial innovation." "Technological innovation is the intrinsic driving force of industrial innovation, and industrial innovation is the value realization of technological innovation. The two mutually drive and promote each other," said Li Wei. He stated that promoting the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation is a systematic project. On one hand, it is necessary to achieve breakthroughs in key core technologies and enhance original innovation capabilities; on the other hand, efforts must be made to improve the institutional mechanisms, strengthen the main position of enterprises in technological innovation, open up the channels for the industrialization of science and technology, and vigorously promote the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.

Enhancing Development's Intrinsic Motivation through Reform and Opening Up

The meeting emphasized "further comprehensively deepening reform and expanding high-level opening up," sending a strong signal to rely on reform and opening up to enhance the intrinsic motivation for development.

"The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made comprehensive arrangements for further deepening reform, identifying more than 300 major reform measures. Accelerating the implementation of these reform measures is not only an important aspect of next year's economic work but will also inject strong momentum into the economic and social development of next year," said Dong Yu, Executive Vice President of the China Development Planning Institute at Tsinghua University.

The meeting proposed to leverage the guiding role of economic system reform to ensure that landmark reform measures are effectively implemented.

From opinions on accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development to opinions on improving the market access system, reform documents at the central level have been successively issued in line with the relevant deployments of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. "According to the division of labor plan for implementing the important reform measures of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee by relevant departments of the central and state organs, some major reform measures will be accelerated for release next year," Dong Yu said.

Promoting reform and development through opening up is a successful practice of China's reform and development. The meeting proposed to expand high-level opening up and stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment.

Recently, a series of policy measures have been successively introduced regarding the reform and innovative development of digital trade and promoting stable growth in foreign trade. Dong Yu stated that it is necessary to strengthen enterprise service guarantees and address the practical difficulties faced by enterprises, using the expansion of new paths, new models, and new formats as a means to further consolidate the foundation of foreign trade and foreign investment.

The meeting proposed to increase the implementation of regional strategies and enhance regional development vitality. Guo Liyan said that it is necessary to deeply implement major regional strategies, steadily promote institutional opening through the construction of pilot free trade zones, and promote the formation of a new pattern of higher-level reform and opening up.

Increasing Efforts to Guarantee and Improve People's Livelihoods

The ultimate goal of promoting high-quality development is the happiness and well-being of the people. This meeting pointed out the need to increase efforts to guarantee and improve people's livelihoods, enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security among the populace.

"The more complex and severe the economic situation, the more we must focus on people's livelihood concerns and ensure a solid bottom line for people's livelihoods. Currently, we need to take more pragmatic measures to weave a tight social security net and create more effective demand through continuous guarantees and improvements in people's livelihoods, injecting new momentum into the sustained and healthy development of the economy and society," said Long Haibo, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The meeting made important arrangements to continuously consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, emphasizing the need to "coordinate the promotion of new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization, and promote urban-rural integrated development."

"The key to implementing the meeting's arrangements is to do everything possible to promote agricultural efficiency, increase farmers' income, and enhance rural vitality, further improving the institutional mechanisms for urban-rural integrated development," Long Haibo said Green mountains and clear waters are natural wealth, economic wealth, and social wealth. The meeting emphasized the need to collaboratively promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, and green growth, accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Xu Guangjian stated that currently, the focus is on actively cultivating green low-carbon industries, vigorously developing advanced manufacturing, advocating for green and healthy consumption concepts, and accelerating the formation of green production and lifestyle.

The more critical the moment, the more we must unite our efforts and move forward in unison. The meeting emphasized strengthening the Party's leadership over economic work to ensure that the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee are implemented effectively.

Experts indicated that under the strong leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, by implementing the various decisions and deployments in detail and fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties, we are fully capable of achieving the economic and social development goals for next year and creating a new situation for development.

Source: Xinhua News Agency