China to boost spending in 2023 economic revival drive, top planner says

Name: China can see a ‘light of hope’ in Covid battle, says Xi Jinping in New Year’s message
Uploaded: 2023-01-01T12:00:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: China can see a ‘light of hope’ in Covid battle, says Xi Jinping in New Year’s message

Senior economic official Zhao Chenxin says expansion of consumption will be a priority in the push to lift overall demand

Property and internet companies will get support, as will shopping centres

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Policymakers have been trying to talk up market sentiment in recent months, but the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the pandemic’s scars on household and business finances have cast a shadow over the economy. Source: Bloomberg

Frank Tangin Beijing

Published: 8:00pm, 1 Jan 2023Updated: 4:48pm, 2 Jan 2023

China’s top economic planner aims to help boost domestic consumption and woo more foreign investors this year as it seeks to revive the country’s Covid-hit economy.

In a People’s Daily interview published on Sunday, Zhao Chenxin, deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said authorities would align fiscal, monetary, industrial, technology and social policies to promote growth.

The government would also give support to previously tightly regulated sectors such as property and internet companies as part of a wider push to increase consumer spending.

We must make the recovery and expansion of consumption a priority, and use government investment and incentives to drive up social investment

Zhao Chenxin

“Inadequate overall demand is the main factor holding back the economy,” he said.

“We must make the recovery and expansion of consumption a priority, and use government investment and incentives to drive up social investment.

“We will also keep track of economic performance in a timely manner, improve policy reserves, and continuously enrich the policy toolbox to deal with unexpected shocks.”

02:22

China can see a ‘light of hope’ in Covid battle, says Xi Jinping in New Year’s message

Zhao’s comments offer the first glimpse of this year’s macroeconomic priorities, which will be laid out formally when the country’s new premier and his economic team are sworn in in March.