The Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party convened a meeting last week to prepare for the annual Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), where the economic situation will be reviewed and measures discussed to guide the economy next year.
The meeting identified stabilizing economic growth as one of China’s top priorities for next year. It urged the country to “strongly boost market confidence”, “promote a high level of opening up to the outside world and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment”. It also called for lifting market confidence, strengthening policy coordination and optimizing coronavirus prevention and control measures, as part of the economic assessment and policymaking for 2023. China will continue to play its role as a stabilizer of the world economy despite expectations of a challenging 2023. The meeting “made arrangements for improving Party conduct and moral integrity and combating corruption”, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Regarding the economic work for the year ahead, the meeting stressed the need to fully implement the guidelines of the 20th CPC National Congress and make solid progress in advancing Chinese modernization. The country will pay special attention to ensuring steady growth, employment and prices, forestall and defuse major risks effectively, and strive to achieve an overall improvement in the economic performance characterized by higher quality and reasonable growth. Proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy will be continuously rolled out to pursue steady economic progress. Policies in various spheres will be better coordinated while epidemic responses will be optimized. The CPC Central Committee also held a symposium with non-CPC personages to solicit opinions and suggestions on this year's economic situation and economic work for the next year.
The Politburo meeting pointed to an overall rebound of macro-economic operations in 2023, realizing effective improvement in quality and a reasonable GDP growth rate, which indicates that one of the most important tasks next year is to fire up the economic engine under the new development pattern, Cao Heping, Economist at Peking University, told the Global Times. He anticipates that the digital economy, emerging industries as well as green and low-carbon development will empower economic and social development in the post-Covid-19 era. Industrial policies need to boost both development and security, while policies in the field of science and technology should focus on self-reliance and self-improvement, and social policies need to ensure people's livelihood. Efforts will also be made to further expand domestic demand and to give full play to the fundamental role of consumption and the key role of investment. The meeting also emphasized the need to strengthen the resilience of industrial chains and supply chains, boost opening-up at a high level, and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment.
UBS economists led by Wang Tao wrote that the upcoming CEWC in December may “emphasize more support for growth, reiterate scientific and precise Covid controls with more easing, further support the property sector, underpin employment and consumption, and enhance macro policy support,” the Global Times reports.
