On January 22, two new-generation "mobile islands at sea"—TYPE3 PRO self-elevating offshore support platforms—independently designed and built by CISC Wuhan Shipyard Machinery Haixi Heavy Machinery, set sail from the Qingdao West Coast New Area, destined for delivery in the Persian Gulf in the Middle East.
The National Bureau of Statistics recently announced China's economic "report card" for 2025. The annual gross domestic product reached 140.1879 trillion yuan, surpassing the 140 trillion yuan mark for the first time, representing a year-on-year growth of 5%.
The China News Service's "Guoshi Direct Train" recently held an "Analysis Meeting on China's Economic Situation in 2026," where several economists interpreted the latest data from various fields including macroeconomics, consumption, the property market, trade, and finance.
The Chinese economy demonstrated resilience and vitality by forging ahead under pressure in 2025, amidst complex changes in the domestic and international economic environment.
"This substantial report card fully indicates that China's economy operated stably overall in 2025 and achieved the expected targets," said Chen Wenling, Vice Chair of the Academic Committee and former Chief Economist of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
She pointed out that the Chinese economy faced a series of pressures in 2025: intense major-power competition; the ongoing reshaping of the international landscape; the impacts of the "trade war"; and domestic long-standing issues and new challenges. Under such heavy pressure, achieving the expected targets was no easy feat, extraordinary, and exceptional compared to some other major global economies.
Chen Wenling stated that China's economy is developing with improving quality and structure: traditional industries are accelerating their transformation and upgrading, strategic emerging industries are being further optimized, and future industries such as quantum computing, industrial robots, artificial intelligence, and large models are also developing rapidly.
She emphasized that more proactive fiscal policies and appropriately accommodative monetary policies played a significant role, maintaining vitality and momentum in the unified large market. Particularly, the introduction of the Private Economy Promotion Law and the revision of the market access negative list provided institutional guarantees for activating the market.
Furthermore, import-export trade and opening-up made significant strides, with "the door of opening-up widening further, and an open China playing a major leading role for an open world."
Wu Jing, Director of the Real Estate Research Center at Tsinghua University, stated that the property market in 2025 overall showed a trend of stabilizing amid fluctuations, demonstrating positive signs not only in the short-term cycle but also making important progress in the long-term cycle, laying a solid foundation for the market to stabilize in 2026.
He pointed out four positive phenomena in the 2025 property market: first, the total transaction volume is clearly trending towards stability; second, differentiation between and within cities has further increased; third, greater effectiveness has been achieved in controlling new supply; and fourth, inventory has decreased to some extent.
In Wu Jing's view, the most symbolic event in the real estate sector in 2025 was the comprehensive completion of the task to ensure housing project deliveries. The major risks accumulated under the old model characterized by high debt, high leverage, and high turnover significantly converged within the year, not only safeguarding socio-economic stability but also laying a solid foundation for the industry's subsequent healthy development.
Simultaneously, the new development model is gradually becoming clearer. On one hand, real estate is further returning to its essential attribute of serving people's livelihoods; on the other hand, urban development is shifting from large-scale incremental expansion to a stage dominated by existing stock, more closely integrated with high-quality urban development primarily driven by urban renewal, which objectively provides substantial development opportunities for traditional industries including real estate and construction.
Wu Jing stated that the policy toolkit for both supply and demand sides in real estate continued to improve in 2025, creating a favorable policy environment for market recovery, and marginal improvement measures are still being rolled out and will function synergistically. He expressed confidence in the market continuing to trend towards stability in 2026.
Relevant data shows that the total retail sales of consumer goods in 2025 exceeded 50 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year, with its scale ranking among the top global retail markets. The contribution of final consumption expenditure to economic growth was 52%, 5 percentage points higher than the previous year.
Additionally, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2025 remained flat compared to the previous year, and the per capita disposable income of residents was 43,377 yuan, a nominal increase of 5.0% year-on-year.
"Against the backdrop of profound and complex changes in the development environment, this 'report card' is satisfactory," said Zhang Ying, Vice Dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. In his view, human development is the core driver of consumption. Only when consumers possess sufficient purchasing power and willingness to consume will producers be prompted to enhance products and services from multiple perspectives, rather than competing on a single dimension.
Zhang Ying pointed out that one of the difficulties in boosting consumption is the relatively low share of labor income. Simultaneously, intergenerational support is very pronounced in China. If the concerns of the working population are not resolved, even with some income growth, it may not necessarily translate into consumption.
Another major challenge is the lack of consumption scenarios and willingness. Cultivating habitual long-term consumption among consumers is an important change in China's economy transitioning from reliance on investment and foreign trade to being driven by consumption.
He suggested directing resources towards areas that constitute "investment in people," such as education, employment, healthcare, and social security. This not only can unleash long-term consumption potential but also serves as a driving force to break the cycle of "involution."
Amid slowing global economic growth and rising trade protectionism, the total value of goods imports and exports for the full year 2025 reached 45.4687 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.8% over the previous year. This marks the ninth consecutive year of growth for China's imports and exports.
"China's exports will still possess strong growth momentum in the future," said Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce. On one hand, this comes from international demand; under current circumstances where some countries are raising tariffs and restricting imports/exports, China's supply can help other countries reduce trade "supply chain disruptions," which is crucial for international industrial cooperation and economic development. On the other hand, it stems from China's continuous efforts to improve the trade environment, including a series of measures such as the signing of the Protocol to Upgrade the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, which are expected to help enterprises and markets gain more effective institutional safeguards.
Furthermore, China's continuous pursuit of new technologies and new factors of production has created favorable conditions for foreign trade through new developments in the trade sector. Beyond goods trade, China has stronger development momentum in service trade and digital trade. With the evolution of trade methods, the efficiency of trade supply will be further enhanced.
"In the process of China's economy developing towards the new and the superior, new quality productive forces have become a key engine," said Zhou Jingtong, Vice President and Researcher of the Bank of China Research Institute. He stated that during the continuous transformation towards "the new and the superior" in 2025, new quality productive forces promoted significant changes in at least four aspects: first, the "new and superior" industrial structure became more prominent; second, the competitive advantage of export commodities continued to stand out; third, the supporting role of investment in key areas became more evident; and fourth, the leading and driving role of emerging consumption became conspicuous.
He pointed out that new quality productive forces are the key determinant for stable economic growth during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. They are characterized by a significant increase in total factor productivity, breaking away from traditional economic growth patterns and productivity development paths, and shaping a new production function.
From an industrial perspective, traditional industries have huge potential for intelligent, green, and integrated development. Industries such as mining, metallurgy, chemicals, light industry, textiles, machinery, shipbuilding, and construction are poised to gain new vitality under the guidance of new quality productive forces. Emerging industries like new energy, new materials, aerospace, and the low-altitude economy will also develop rapidly, while future industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence robotics, and sixth-generation mobile communication (6G) are important areas slated for development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
Regarding financial support for developing new quality productive forces, Zhou Jingtong stated that financial support for these forces has been increasing in recent years. The next step requires further adjustment and optimization, such as accelerating the development of direct financing, cultivating and growing patient capital, and establishing related industrial investment funds.
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