Chinese vice-premier urges support for listed firms to help stabilise battered stock market

Name: China GDP: Beijing’s long to-do list to boost its economy in 2024
Uploaded: 2024-01-30T09:01:01.000Z
Duration: 2 min 31 s
Description: China GDP: Beijing’s long to-do list to boost its economy in 2024

He Lifeng tells cadres to step up support for ‘high-quality development’ to stem loss of confidence, and entice sceptical investors

Policymakers must take more ‘precise, concrete measures’ to revive market sentiment, analyst says

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In a Monday meeting, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng told cadres to “sink to the ground” and visit many types of listed firms on door-knocking and problem-solving missions to help support quality companies to improve their investment appeal. Photo: Xinhua

Frank Chenin Shanghai

Published: 5:01pm, 30 Jan 2024Updated: 6:07pm, 30 Jan 2024

Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng has called for improvements in the performance and profitability of listed firms, a signal that Beijing wants to see more support for China’s ailing stock market and a boost in confidence along with it.

He made the remarks during a nationwide teleconference attended by cadres from all regions on Monday, during which he said confidence, capital market stability and economic development must be promoted. He called the country’s listed firms a critical “microeconomic bedrock”, stressing the high-quality development of the economy.

He told cadres to “sink to the ground” and visit many types of listed firms on door-knocking and problem-solving missions and step up support for quality companies to improve their investment appeal.

“Promoting the high-quality development of listed firms will incentivise the drive for scientific and technological self-reliance, accelerate the building of modernised industrial systems and solidify confidence,” He said, according to a Xinhua readout.

Beijing last week began stepping in to reboot mainland China’s sagging stock exchanges, which included 5,346 firms as at the end of 2023, according to the China Association for Public Companies.

Despite annual economic growth of 5.2 per cent last year, slightly better than the leadership’s target of “around 5 per cent”, China’s economy continues to be weighed down by gloomy investor sentiment, with a property sector in distress and developers and local governments mired in debt.

Chinese stocks, which have endured a long tumble into bear market territory, now reflect a sullen investment atmosphere.

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China GDP: Beijing’s long to-do list to boost its economy in 2024

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