A senior official emphasized the need to well balance total supply and demand, while making domestic demand a primary driver and stabilizer of economic growth, while addressing an annual conference on the Chinese economy in Beijing Saturday.
Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, pointed out that in face of insufficient domestic demand and unstable, uncertain external factors, it is essential to coordinate efforts on both the supply and demand sides to promote a balance between total supply and total demand for a virtuous cycle of the national economy.
"On the one hand, we must continue to deepen supply-side structural reform, while stressing advancement and retreat, increase and reduction, and maintenance and curb in some areas to enhance the compatibility and balance between supply and demand. On the other hand, we must regard expanding domestic demand as a long-term strategic measure and accelerate efforts to address shortfalls in domestic demand, particularly in consumption, so that domestic demand can become the primary driver and stabilizer of economic growth, which will help consolidate and expand the domestic circulation, better promote and lead the dual circulation of the domestic and international markets, and speed up the formation of a new development pattern," said Han.
Efforts to comprehensively expand domestic demand will be in full swing in 2025, said Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning body.
According to Zhao, special initiatives to boost consumption will be implemented to help middle- and low-income groups increase their income and reduce their burdens, thereby enhancing their consumption capacity and willingness. Greater efforts will be made to encourage and provide stronger support for equipment upgrading and consumer goods replacement. The central government's investment will be appropriately increased to effectively drive social investment, and plans for major projects during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period will be drawn up early.
Private investment projects will be supported and encouraged towards healthy development, said Zhao at the conference. "We will push for the implementation of landmark reform measures and ensure tangible results, draft guidelines for building a unified national market, and work to remove local protectionism and market segmentation. We will also carry out comprehensive pilot reform for the market-based allocation of production factors, strengthen regulatory measures to promote the healthy development of the platform economy, and launch a special campaign to reduce logistics costs across society," he said.
Domestic demand should be primary driver, stabilizer of economic growth: official
