China makes progresses in high-quality development in H1

China has made significant strides in high-quality development, with domestic consumption and foreign trade maintaining stable growth, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Li Yongjie, Deputy International Trade Representative of the Ministry of Commerce, outlined the progress in four areas -- domestic consumption, foreign trade, foreign investment, and international economic and trade cooperation.

In terms of domestic consumption, Li highlighted the effectiveness of trade-in policies and the growth in service consumption.

"In the first half of 2024, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23.6 trillion yuan (about 3.26 trillion U.S. dollars), marking a 3.7 percent increase year on year. As of 9:00 on Friday, the number of applications for subsidies for the scrapping and renewal of old cars had topped 450,000, and the retail volume of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) increased by 33.1 percent year on year. Besides, the service consumption sector saw relatively rapid growth in the first half of the year, with retail sales and income from catering registering 7.5 percent and 7.9 percent increase year on year respectively," Li said.

Li noted that new drivers in foreign trade have been cultivated at a fast pace.

"In the first half of the year, the imports and exports of goods reached 21.2 trillion yuan (about 2.93 trillion U.S. dollars), a 6.1 percent increase year on year. The imports and exports of services reached 3.6 trillion yuan (about 500 billion U.S. dollars), a 14 percent increase year on year. Together, the imports and exports of goods and services contributed 13.9 percent to economic growth in the first half of 2024. New drivers in foreign trade have been nurtured rapidly. In the six-month period, exports of cross-border e-commerce maintained fast growth, with the export of advantageous products such as vessels and vehicles witnessing relatively high growth. The results of a research by the Ministry of Commerce on 16,000 major foreign-invested operators show that over 70 percent have projected growth for the whole year," she said.

Li also highlighted significant strides in foreign investment and international economic and trade cooperation.

"In the first half of this year, 27,000 new foreign-invested companies were established, with actual use of foreign investment totaling 498.9 billion yuan (about 68.99 billion U.S. dollars). The structure of investment attracted into China has kept improving, with foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing increasing by 2.4 percentage points compared to the same period of last year. Foreign investment cooperation also saw significant growth. Direct investment in the foreign non-financial sector reached 516 billion yuan (about 71.35 billion U.S. dollars), a 19.5 percent increase year on year, while the turnover of foreign contract engineering reached 513.3 billion yuan (about 70.98 billion U.S. dollars), marking a 4.7 percent increase over the same period of last year," Li said.

China makes progresses in high-quality development in H1

The fresh U.S. tariff policy represents protectionism which bucks the trend of the world economy and is bound to pose risks to the United States itself, a Japanese economist said on Saturday.

Hidetoshi Tashiro, chief economist at Japan's Infinity LLC, said Japan's pillar automobile industry will by definition bear the brunt of the U.S. reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on automobiles, with some companies even facing a life-or-death crisis.

However, the expert believes that the U.S. tariff policy will also worsen inflation in the United States and have a negative effect on global trade.

"This tariff policy will only add fuel to the fire, rather than extinguishing it. In the current environment of severe high prices in the U.S., the life of U.S. citizens will become even more difficult. Moreover, under the impact of this tariff policy, global trade volume will clearly shrink. The production of exported goods from various countries will decrease. This tariff policy is completely unreasonable for the development of the global economy, and even for the development of the U.S. economy itself," he said.

The expert believes that the U.S. trade protectionism is at odds with global economic trends.

"The U.S. is no longer engaging in free trade at all, or we can even say it is undermining free trade. It’s not just protectionism, it’s essentially destroying free trade. The United States is disconnecting from the world economy, and this is a very serious issue," said the economist.

US new tariff policy bucks global trend, harms itself: Japanese economist