NPC committee reviews reports, drafts on budgets, economic and social development plans for 2025

The National People's Congress (NPC) Financial and Economic Affairs Committee held a plenary meeting on Friday to review reports and drafts on budgets and economic and social development plans at the third session of the 14th NPC in Beijing.

The meeting passed two reports on the committee's review results and submitted them to the presidium of the third session of the 14th NPC.

The committee agreed that the implementation of the 2024 plan for national economic and social development was generally good. The 2025 plans are in line with the guiding principles of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress, the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, meet the requirements of the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), and are in accordance with the status quo of economic and social development in China, believing that the overall requirements, objectives and tasks, policy orientation and concrete measures are feasible on the whole.

The committee suggested the third session of 14th NPC approve the Report on the Implementation of the Plan for National Economic and Social Development in 2024 and the Draft Plan for National Economic and Social Development in 2025 submitted by the State Council, and approve the draft plan for national economic and social development in 2025.

The meeting also agreed that the execution of budgets for 2024 was good in general. The reports and drafts on central and local budgets for 2025 conform to the 20th CPC National Congress, the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and the decisions and arrangements of the Central Economic Work Conference, are compatible with the expected targets for annual economic and social development and the overall requirements for macro-control. Therefore, the draft budgets for 2025 are feasible.

The committee suggested the third session of 14th NPC approve the Report on the Implementation of the Central and Local Budgets in 2024 and the Draft Central and Local Budgets in 2025 proposed by the State Council, approve the draft central budget for 2025, and also approve the general debt ceiling and special debt ceiling for local governments for 2025.

NPC committee reviews reports, drafts on budgets, economic and social development plans for 2025

Europe is facing mounting economic pressure as tensions in the Middle East escalate, causing significant fluctuations in global energy markets, a European energy expert has said.

The region's heavy reliance on energy imports has left it vulnerable to soaring oil and gas prices, raising concerns over inflation and economic stability, said Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank devoted to policy research on economic issues.

"This is putting very tough pressure on the European gas markets. Also, we see rising cost of the gasoline at the pump. So, higher energy costs, which will again have huge impact on the European citizens and which risk to ignite an inflation spiral where all prices rise as a consequence of the rising energy prices," said Tagliapietra, who specializes in EU climate, energy and industrial policy.

Despite Europe's substantial imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, the expert cautioned, U.S. supply remains unstable, which further complicates Europe's energy security outlook.

"Given the volatility in the decisions of the Trump administration and given the trade war that the Trump administration has started against all other countries including the European Union in the past year, we are also very much attentive at any possible attempt by the U.S. administration to limit the exports of this LNG. We do not see this as an imminent risk, but this is something that Europe certainly needs to watch out with great degree of care in the coming months and weeks," he said.

Tagliapietra agrees that Europe must accelerate its energy transition to reduce dependency on single import sources and fossil fuels.

"There is nothing that Europe can do to decouple itself from this vulnerability of fossil fuel dependency, then accelerating the deployment of solar and wind energy sources in Europe. And we need to continue to do a lot of efforts amid this new energy crisis," said Tagliapietra.

Rising tensions in Middle East trigger energy market volatility in Europe: expert