China is to maintain support for the economy, focusing on domestic demand which remains inadequate, the Chinese Communist Party Politburo said yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The triple pressures facing the economy — shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations — have eased amid better-than-expected first-quarter growth, Xinhua reported following a politburo meeting chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“Market demand has gradually recovered, economic development has shown an upward trend and the economic operation has achieved a good start,” Xinhua said, citing the Politburo.
However, top leaders cautioned that the recovery is not strong enough and the nation faces new obstacles upgrading and transforming its economy.
“The current improvement in China’s economic performance is mainly restorative, with weak momentum and insufficient demand,” the politburo said. “Restoring and expanding demand is the key to the sustained recovery and improvement of the current economy.”
Proactive fiscal policy should be stepped up and work alongside monetary policy to boost demand, the politburo said, reaffirming the current stance.
“The politburo meeting shows the government will likely keep the supportive fiscal and monetary policy stance in the second quarter,” Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd (保銀私募基金管理) chief economist Zhang Zhiwei (張智威) said.
China’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the first quarter, as businesses and consumers were freed from strict COVID-19 curbs that had hobbled economic activity, but there are still headwinds and the recovery remains uneven.
As pockets of weakness remain and a full-blown economic recovery appears some way off, the politburo said urban and rural household income should be increased to boost services consumption, while private investment should be encouraged.
The world’s second-biggest economy has struggled to fully recover, despite lifting tough COVID-19 restrictions in December last year, as a tepid recovery in the property market, local debt risks and slowing global growth have dented confidence and overall demand.
China would expand employment channels for college graduates and stabilize jobs for migrant workers, the politburo said.
The government would also reinforce confidence among businesses, guide state investment, stimulate private investment and attract foreign investment, it added.
Legal and regulatory reforms would be made to encourage fair competition and the development of enterprises, the politburo said.
The Chinese Communist Party signaled upcoming reforms by last week approving guidance to promote the development of private firms, which account for half of tax revenue, more than 60 percent of output and provide 80 percent of urban employment.
China should attach great importance to development of general artificial intelligence, create an innovation ecology and fend off risks, the politburo said.
The politburo also reiterated its policy to support demand for improved housing and ensure property developers deliver.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS