Steady Recovery of China's Economy: Op-ed

The year 2021 is the first year of China's 14th Five-year Plan (2021-2025) and the beginning of its journey to build a modern socialist country in an all-around way. The performance of the national economy has attracted worldwide attention. In recent days, China has introduced new policies and made new achievements in economic development, macro-control, opening-up, and cooperation, which have attracted the attention of Egyptian friends. I would like to make a few observations.

• China's economy has maintained steady recovery.

In the first three quarters of 2021, China's GDP grew by 9.8% year-on-year, higher than the target of 6%. The Chinese economy has maintained a steady recovery and major economic indicators have been running within a proper range, demonstrating its strong resilience and huge potential, and providing a strong impetus for world economic recovery.

• China's economic growth has rich implications.

First, the consumer price index (CPI) remained at a low level. In the January-September period, CPI went up slightly by 0.6% year on year, lower than the target of around 3%. Prices of goods related to household life remained stable with a moderate decline. Second, the overall employment remained stable.

The surveyed unemployment rate in the first three quarters stood at 5.2%, which was lower than the 5.5% target. 10.45 million new urban jobs were created.

Third, steady progress was made in industrial development. From January to August, the added value of high-tech manufacturing witnessed an average two-year growth of 13.1%, and investment in high-tech manufacturing grew by an average two-year growth of 17%.

Fourth, foreign trade and foreign investment grew rapidly. Imports and exports of goods grew by 22.7% in the first nine months of this year. Foreign investment into the Chinese mainland in actual use grew by 22.3% in the first eight months of this year. Foreign exchange reserves remained stable.

Fifth, domestic demand continued to recover. Manufacturing investment and private investment increased 0.2 and 0.5 percentage points respectively in January-August from January-July.

Sixth, innovation and entrepreneurship have maintained a sound momentum. According to World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index, China rose two places to 12th, with nearly 150 million market entities.

Seventh, the vitality of enterprise development has been unleashed. From January to August, the added value of medium-sized, small and micro industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 16.3% and 14.1% respectively, and their total profits witnessed an average two-year growth of 19.5%.

Eighth, overall financing costs were stable with a moderate decline. The lending rate for enterprises from January to August was 4.63%, down by 0.13 percentage points year-on-year.

• Six priorities have provided strong impetus for China's economic development.

First, we took innovative approaches to improve macroeconomic regulation. We strengthened coordination between fiscal, financial and employment policies, maintaining the continuity and stability of our macro policies.

Second, we adhere to the policy of giving priority to employment. We provide more employment assistance to college graduates, rural migrant workers and other groups of people. 3.51 million new migrant worker jobs were added in the first nine months of the year, close to the level in 2019. The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has fallen in a row.

Third, we worked to resolve difficulties for market entities. An additional 300 billion yuan will be set up for re-lending to support small and micro enterprises in industries most affected by the pandemic.

Fourth, we have boosted, through reform,the vitality of market entities and the internal driving force for development. China has unveiled a series of regulatory measures to rein in certain monopolized sectors and the disorderly expansion of capital.These are pragmatic and necessary efforts to promote the sound development of related industries as well as social fairness. China will continue to ramp up tax and fee cut efforts to support market entities, employment and livelihood. The tax and fee cuts are expected to total as much as 700 billion yuan for market entities this year.

Fifth, we continue to advance higher-level opening-up. China unveiled and revised the negative list for market access for three consecutive years, 2018-2020, and the number of items on the list has been reduced by nearly one-fifth. Non-financial foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, totaled 129.3 billion U.S. dollars, rising 25.2% year on year in the first nine months of 2021.

Sixth, we always safeguard and improve people's well-being. China overcame temporary power shortage and the power generation accelerated in September, climbing 4.9% year on year compared with a year earlier. Retail sales of consumer goods jumped 16.4 percent year on year in the first three quarters this year, with online retail sales surging 18.5 percent.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that China's economy is growing by 8 percent in 2021. This is not only higher than the global average, but also higher than that of other major economies, which shows the international community is optimistic about China's economic growth prospects.

Chinese economy, with its strong resilience and huge potential, will continue to make important contributions to serving the global fight against COVID-19 and driving global economic and trade recovery. At the same time, guided by the principles of openness, cooperation, unity and win-win progress, China is committed to expanding opening-up in all respects. China welcomes Egypt and other countries to take advantage of China's development pidend, expand mutual opening-up and cooperation in trade, investment, industry and other fields, promote high-quality Belt & Road cooperation, and jointly promote world economic recovery and development.