(China Economic Roundtable) Xinhua Headlines: China's policy synergy sustains growth, stabilizes employment

BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Amid mounting global uncertainties and a complex external environment, China is reinforcing its commitment to high-quality development to bolster economic stability and resilience.

Following a recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which set priorities for maintaining stable employment, businesses, markets and expectations, relevant government organs have accelerated the rollout of coordinated policies to shore up confidence and sustain momentum.

In the latest episode of the China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk show hosted by Xinhua News Agency, officials from the country's top economic planner, labor authority, and central bank outlined how an expanding policy toolkit is enabling China to navigate headwinds and strengthen the foundations of long-term growth.

MACRO POLICY SUPPORT

The country's economy remained resilient in the first four months, with solid growth in industrial output, services, domestic demand and exports. Official data showed that retail sales of home appliances and communication equipment surged by more than 20 percent during the period, and investment in purchasing equipment rose by 18.2 percent.

Innovation gathered pace, with high-tech manufacturing up 10 percent year on year in April, led by rapid advances in new energy vehicles, large-scale AI models, and humanoid robots.

Ding Lin, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said the upbeat economic data reflected the accelerated rollout of targeted measures and the combined effects of recent policy initiatives.

A 0.5 percentage-point cut in the reserve requirement ratio for eligible financial institutions took effect in mid-May, injecting about 1 trillion yuan (139 billion U.S. dollars) in long-term liquidity. It followed a 0.1 percentage-point cut in the seven-day reverse repo rate, effective May 8.

These moves, along with expanded re-lending tools and the issuance of sci-tech bonds, form part of a broader push by monetary and financial regulatory bodies to steady markets and support recovery amid external headwinds.

"These policies help expand funding available to the real economy, lower financing costs for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and ensure more stable business operations," said Ding Zhijie, head of the Research Institute at the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

Official data showed ample market liquidity and substantial credit support for SMEs.

By the end of April, the outstanding balance of inclusive loans to micro and small enterprises had reached 34.3 trillion yuan, an 11.9 percent year-on-year increase, outpacing the growth of all other loan categories during the same period.

Loans to "little giant" firms, which refer to novel elites among China's SMEs that are engaged in manufacturing, specialize in a niche market, and boast cutting-edge technologies, stood at 6.3 trillion yuan by the end of the first quarter, marking a 15.1 percent increase.

RISING DOMESTIC DEMAND

To strengthen domestic demand as a key driver of growth, China has introduced a series of targeted measures across multiple sectors.

These include expanding services consumption, strengthening care for elderly people with disabilities, promoting automobile sales, improving consumption-related infrastructure, encouraging private investment, and launching new policy-based financial instruments.

The central bank has introduced a package of structural monetary policies to boost domestic demand, including expanding the re-lending facility for sci-tech innovation and technological upgrading from 500 billion to 800 billion yuan, launching a new 500-billion yuan re-lending program to support elderly care and consumption in sectors such as catering and cultural tourism, and supporting financial institutions, tech firms, and equity investment institutions in issuing sci-tech innovation bonds.

Ding Zhijie said that the central bank's recent policies focus on three key aspects: scaling up existing tools, reducing funding costs, and introducing innovative instruments to guide financing toward key areas of consumption and investment.

The country announced a new round of the consumer goods trade-in program last year to boost consumer spending, subsidizing trade-ins of automobiles, home appliances, and home decorations -- and expanded the scope of the program earlier this year.

In the first five months this year, the country's consumer goods trade-in program generated 1.1 trillion yuan in sales, fueling a surge in transactions that included 4.12 million vehicles, 77.62 million units of household appliances and 56.63 million units of digital products such as mobile phones, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

STABLE EMPLOYMENT

As domestic demand picks up and macro policies take effect, employment has remained generally stable.

From January to April, urban job creation increased at a steady pace and the average surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, according to Chen Yongjia, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Chen said the ministry has introduced a series of targeted measures to stabilize employment, which have delivered positive results.

The country has increased the quota for loans aimed at stabilizing and expanding employment, expanded the coverage of subsidy policies that support job creation, and extended existing measures such as unemployment insurance refunds and skill training subsidies to fully unleash policy dividends.

In the first quarter, 3.52 billion yuan in job stabilization funds were issued, along with 23.8 billion yuan in employment subsidies and 156.3 billion yuan in special-purpose loans for job retention and expansion.

Starting this year, over 10 million people will benefit from subsidized vocational training programs each year for three consecutive years, alongside specialized courses in elderly care, domestic services, and long-term caregiving to improve workforce skills.

The officials said greater efforts will be made to enhance the foresight, precision and effectiveness of macro regulation, ensuring that all policies work in the same direction and reinforce each other.

Such coordinated efforts are expected to support the economy's upward momentum, reinforce market confidence, and improve resilience against rising global uncertainties, they said.  ■

(Video editors: Wang Houyuan, Luo Hui.)