Steady growth, stable employment, stable prices, and intensive introduction of many measures will soon return to the normal track.
Since the beginning of this year, in the face of the downward pressure of the economy, all localities and departments have adhered to the principle of stability and progress, coordinated the prevention and control of epidemic situation and economic and social development, and taken various measures to do a good job in stabilizing growth, employment and prices. With the efforts of various policies and the gradual release of policy effects, the normal economic order will be quickly restored and the economic operation will soon return to the normal track.
A few days ago, the macro data of China’s economy was released in April. Affected by the new round of epidemic and the unexpected changes in the international situation, the new downward pressure on the economy has increased. How to treat the current economic situation?
At the online press conference of the National Development and Reform Commission in May, Meng Wei, a spokesperson, said: "At present, the domestic epidemic rebound has been effectively dealt with, and various policies have been put forward and the policy effects have been gradually released. I believe that the normal economic order will be quickly restored and the economic operation will soon return to normal track."
Steady growth-
Effectively coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and strive to stabilize the macroeconomic market.
Faced with the complexity, severity and uncertainty of China’s economic development environment, how to make steady growth work? What are the practical measures to stabilize employment? What are the advantages of stabilizing prices?
Adhere to the principle of stability, strive for progress in stability, and put steady growth in a more prominent position. Effectively coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and various measures are intensively introduced.
Steady investment, macro-policy is in the forefront. From January to April, the National Development and Reform Commission approved 38 fixed assets investment projects with a total investment of 533.3 billion yuan. Among them, 8 fixed assets investment projects were approved in April, with a total investment of 18.8 billion yuan, mainly in the fields of informationization and energy. At present, the quota of local government special bonds used for project construction in 2022 has all been issued. By the end of April, about 1.4 trillion yuan of special bonds have been issued this year.
Smooth circulation, ensure the accessibility of material transportation. In view of the problems in some areas, such as blocked cross-regional logistics and poor port transportation, all localities and departments have made a combination of boxing: eliminating card points, strengthening the monitoring of the traffic situation of expressways and ordinary national highways and the transportation of key materials, and promoting the implementation of a unified national pass system. As of May 16th, the decline of truck traffic in the Yangtze River Delta continued to narrow, and all toll stations and service areas in key epidemic-related areas were opened. Through blocking points, four production materials transfer stations were built in Shanghai, Ningbo and Hangzhou, which played an important role in promoting the resumption of production in key industries such as automobiles.
Reduce costs and effectively stimulate market vitality. While continuing to implement institutional tax reduction and fee reduction to support manufacturing, small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, we will improve and optimize the policy arrangements for phased cost reduction and exempt small-scale taxpayers from value-added tax in stages; Give priority to small and micro enterprises’ tax refund, increase tax incentives for innovation of small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises, and guide more funds to flow to key areas and weak links … This year’s cost reduction "spree" combines phased measures with institutional arrangements, inclusive fairness with precise support, with practical measures and great efforts.
Prevent risks and strengthen industrial chain monitoring and early warning. The National Development and Reform Commission guides all localities to establish a risk monitoring and disposal system for the industrial chain supply chain, grasp the emerging risks in a timely manner, and coordinate and solve them in a targeted manner. Especially for key enterprises in integrated circuits and other fields, we should implement daily scheduling and strengthen cooperation to help coordinate and solve the problems faced by enterprises, such as limited return of personnel, poor transportation of raw materials, and suspension of production by suppliers, so as to drive upstream, downstream, large, medium and small supporting enterprises to resume work and production.
"We will thoroughly implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, intensify macro-policy adjustment, fully expand domestic demand, make precise efforts to expand effective investment, promote the implementation of a number of major projects that are beneficial to both the present and the long term, stabilize market players, and promote enterprises to resume work and reach production as soon as possible under the conditions of epidemic prevention and control, effectively protect and improve people’s livelihood, and strive to stabilize the macroeconomic market." The spokesman said.
Stable employment-
The employment situation continued to be under pressure, and the work of stabilizing employment was implemented in four aspects.
Employment is the foundation of people’s livelihood. Since March, due to the influence of many domestic epidemic spots, wide coverage, frequent occurrence and the more complicated and severe international situation, the difficulties of market participants have increased significantly, and it has become more difficult for some key groups to find jobs, and the unemployment rate in urban surveys has increased. In April, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 6.1%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month, and the employment situation continued to be under pressure.
In view of the grim situation and challenges in the field of employment, recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have made many arrangements to study the employment problem, and many departments have introduced relevant measures to do everything possible to stabilize existing employment and actively increase new employment. How to further strengthen the implementation of the employment priority policy? The spokesman said that the implementation of various measures to stabilize employment will focus on promoting four aspects of work.
Guarantee market players and employment. Under the condition of doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, we will promote enterprises to return to work and reach production. We will speed up the implementation of policies to help enterprises get out of trouble, such as tax refund, tax reduction and fee reduction, and deferred payment of social security fees, make greater efforts to reduce costs, strengthen accurate support for manufacturing, contact service industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, further reduce the burden on market players, and help them tide over difficulties and hold their posts.
Promote innovation and entrepreneurship to bring employment. Clean up and remove unreasonable restrictions on employment and entrepreneurship, further enhance the leading role and service capacity of the dual-innovation demonstration base, carry out in-depth demonstration actions of entrepreneurship to promote employment, and enhance the service capacity of the dual-innovation platform. We will strengthen the construction of platforms such as the Pioneer Park and encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses in their hometowns. Support multi-channel flexible employment, strengthen the protection of workers’ rights and interests in new employment forms, and continuously release the kinetic energy of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Grasp key groups and stabilize employment. We will implement the spirit of the Notice on Further Improving the Employment and Entrepreneurship of Young College Graduates and encourage local governments to introduce more support policies. We will further promote the construction of a demonstration park for the integration and development of rural industries, vigorously develop rural industries to enrich the people, actively promote the way of work instead of relief in the field of rural infrastructure construction, and expand local employment channels for farmers.
Talent training strengthens employment support. Deepen the integration of production and education in vocational education, school-enterprise cooperation, and continue to support the construction of pilot cities for improving the quality and quality of vocational education and integrating production and education. Increase support for the construction of public training bases, promote the combination of production and training with high quality, promote the co-construction and sharing of vocational skills training resources, and help carry out large-scale vocational skills training and training.
Stabilize prices-
The supply of industrial and agricultural products and services is abundant, and we will do our best to ensure the supply and price stability of bulk commodities.
Since the beginning of this year, international commodity prices have fluctuated at a high level, and all major economies in the world are facing greater inflationary pressures. In sharp contrast with other major economies, in April, China’s CPI rose by 2.1% year-on-year. Under the pressure of imported inflation, it is not easy for China’s prices to maintain a stable and moderate increase.
"In the face of the complicated and severe external situation, China has coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, accurately grasped the rhythm of macroeconomic policies, and continued to do a good job in ensuring supply and price stability of important commodities." The spokesman said that all localities and departments have taken various measures to ensure supply and stabilize prices. Since the beginning of this year, China’s prices have been operating within the overall reasonable range. In April, the core CPI excluding food and energy prices declined steadily, rising by 0.9% year-on-year, and the growth rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points from last month.
Generally speaking, the market supply capacity of goods and services in China is relatively sufficient, and there are many favorable conditions for maintaining price stability.
Food prices are stable and have a foundation. Recently, international food prices have been rising, but the domestic situation has remained generally stable. China’s grain production has been stable at more than 1.3 trillion Jin for seven consecutive years, and its inventory is relatively sufficient. Fu Linghui, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that the output of two kinds of rations in China has exceeded the demand for many years, and a small amount of imports are mainly variety adjustment. Corn and soybean have a certain import volume, which will be affected by the international market to a certain extent, but the impact is limited. Since the beginning of this year, China’s grain production situation has continued to improve, and there is a good foundation for maintaining stable grain prices.
The energy supply is stable and secure. China’s oil and natural gas exploitation ratio is relatively high, and the rising price of international energy products will increase the import cost to a certain extent, bring import influence to some industries, and increase the pressure of cost-driven price increase. However, it should be noted that China’s main energy source is coal, while China’s coal reserves are relatively rich and its production capacity is strong. With the gradual release of advanced coal production capacity, it is conducive to curbing the rise in energy prices. In April, China’s coal output increased by 10.7% year-on-year, and the price increase of coal mining and washing industry dropped by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. The spokesman said that the National Development and Reform Commission will take coal as the "anchor" to do a good job in energy supply and price stabilization, and stabilize electricity prices by stabilizing coal prices, thus stabilizing the overall energy cost.
Most industrial consumer goods have sufficient supply capacity. China has a complete industrial system and strong supporting capacity, and the output of major industrial products is in the forefront of the world, laying a solid foundation for product price stability. The spokesman said that the joint supervision of the spot market will be strengthened with relevant departments, and illegal acts such as fabricating and spreading price increase information, hoarding and driving up prices will be severely cracked down, especially the malicious speculation of capital.
"We will adhere to comprehensive policies and precise regulation, and do our best to ensure the supply and price stability of bulk commodities." The spokesman said that in the later period, China has strong economic resilience, large market space, rich policy toolbox and abundant supply of industrial and agricultural products and services, and is fully qualified, capable and confident to continue to maintain stable price operation. (Reporter Lu Yanan)