At a press conference on economic topics held during the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress on March 6, heads of five key ministries outlined China's economic priorities for the year. Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission responded to questions from domestic and international journalists on topics ranging from development reform and fiscal budgets to commerce and financial markets.
The Government Work Report has set this year's economic growth target at between 4.5% and 5%, with efforts aimed at achieving even better results in practice. During the press conference, representatives from the five ministries provided detailed explanations on how they plan to enhance macroeconomic regulation, build a strong domestic market, strengthen the modern industrial system, address bottlenecks in economic and social development, and promote high-quality growth in the capital markets.
**Macroeconomic Policy Becomes More Proactive**
China's economic aggregate exceeded 140 trillion yuan in 2025. The head of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that this year's GDP growth is expected to surpass 6 trillion yuan, equivalent to the annual GDP of a developed economy. This year, China will continue to implement more proactive and effective macroeconomic policies, increasing both counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments. This includes continuing a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy.
The Minister of Finance indicated that this year's fiscal scale has reached new highs in three aspects. First, total expenditure has hit a record high, exceeding 30 trillion yuan for the first time. The deficit-to-GDP ratio continues to be set at around 4%, with a deficit size of 5.89 trillion yuan. Combined with fiscal revenue and the use of existing funds, total national general public budget expenditure has reached 30 trillion yuan. Second, the scale of newly issued government bonds has reached a new high of 11.89 trillion yuan, the largest in recent years. This includes 4.4 trillion yuan in new local government special bonds, 1.3 trillion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, and 300 billion yuan in special treasury bonds. Third, central government transfer payments to local governments have reached a record high of 10.42 trillion yuan, exceeding 10 trillion yuan for the fourth consecutive year.
An economist noted that the more proactive fiscal policy is mainly reflected in greater intensity and structural optimization. Necessary expenditure intensity helps stabilize aggregate demand and supports the achievement of economic and livelihood goals. Optimizations in expenditure structure, deficit structure, and transfer payment structure are all designed to maximize the policy impact of limited fiscal funds.
The Governor of the People's Bank of China stated that early this year, the central bank cut the interest rate on structural monetary policy tools by 0.25 percentage points, separately allocated 1 trillion yuan in relending funds for private enterprises, and conducted net injections of approximately 2 trillion yuan in medium- to long-term funds through open market operations. Overall, social financing conditions remain accommodative, with reasonable growth in financial aggregates. Regarding highly anticipated changes in interest and exchange rates, the Governor indicated that levels will be guided and adjusted based on economic, financial, and macroeconomic conditions to keep overall social financing costs low. The central bank will adhere to the market's decisive role in exchange rate formation, maintain exchange rate flexibility, strengthen expectation guidance, and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level.
A chief economist suggested that reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts remain optional monetary policy tools for the year. However, decisions are expected to be made based on balancing multiple objectives, emphasizing the quality and long-term effects of policy implementation.
**Accelerating the Renewal of Old Drivers and the Growth of New Ones**
To date, policies promoting the replacement of consumer goods have driven sales exceeding 4.16 trillion yuan, benefiting 531 million people. Third- and fourth-tier cities and county-level markets account for over 70% of the national population, 60% of GDP, and total retail sales, indicating significant untapped consumption potential and fast growth. This suggests there is still considerable room for expanding domestic demand and stimulating consumption.
The Minister of Commerce stated that the market is the world's most scarce resource today. While some countries use markets as weapons or bargaining chips, practicing protectionism, China, as a responsible major country, proactively opens its ultra-large market, viewing it as an opportunity for cooperation. In recent years, China has successively launched three national-level brand campaigns: "Shop in China," "Export to China," and "Invest in China." The Minister described these as an organically connected brand matrix, with enhanced linkage and mutual promotion to create a synergistic effect. This will facilitate the interconnection of domestic and international markets, industrial integration, and innovation promotion, positioning China's massive market as a global development opportunity for all to share.
A chief macro analyst pointed out that the focus of consumption promotion is shifting from durable goods like automobiles and home appliances to service consumption such as travel and cultural entertainment. This shift is driven by strong resident demand for services, which helps improve the leverage effect of fiscal funds for consumption stimulation and enhances the efficiency of fiscal fund usage.
While new consumption trends emerge, new drivers are also appearing on the supply side. The head of the National Development and Reform Commission explained that efforts will focus on coordinating technological innovation with industrial innovation, and deepening the integration of advanced manufacturing and modern services. This involves both optimizing the foundational economic base and cultivating new pillar industries. For optimization, 200 billion yuan from ultra-long-term special treasury bonds will support equipment upgrades. A national services industry conference will be held after the Two Sessions, with relevant departments issuing a series of capacity expansion and quality enhancement measures. The services sector is expected to exceed 100 trillion yuan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. For cultivating new pillars, an industrial innovation project will be implemented to bolster support for emerging and future industries. Examples include continuing the Beidou large-scale application project, aiming to grow the Beidou industry scale to over 1 trillion yuan within five years, and deepening the "AI Plus" initiative, with the AI-related industry scale projected to grow to over 10 trillion yuan by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. To bolster innovation support, a national-level mergers and acquisitions fund will be established, expected to guide and leverage over 1 trillion yuan in various funds.
A policy advisor emphasized that accelerating the cultivation of new growth drivers requires tailoring efforts to local conditions to foster new productive forces.布局 should be accelerated around traditional industries, emerging industries, future industries, and the service sector, promoting the digital, intelligent, high-end, and integrated transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.
**ChiNext Board to Undergo Six Major Reforms**
Regarding capital market development, it was revealed at the press conference that preventing risks, strengthening supervision, and promoting high-quality development are the overarching themes for the next steps of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
First, supporting high-quality innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises in new consumption and modern services to list on the ChiNext board is a significant positive for A-share IPOs. Since the "August 27, 2023" policy adjustments, consumer and service-oriented companies have faced considerable pressure listing on the A-share market, making Hong Kong listings a common alternative. The clear supportive stance from the CSRC chairman towards listing new consumption and modern service enterprises on ChiNext opens a new door for A-share IPOs for these two types of companies. However, two underlying signals are noteworthy. First, supported consumer and service companies must meet prerequisite conditions: they need to possess characteristics of "modernity," "newness," and be "linked to innovation and entrepreneurship." In other words, their services should align with currently supported emerging and future industries, contributing to their development. Second, this support does not necessarily imply a substantial increase in the number of such listings on ChiNext; cautious optimism is advised.
Supporting these listings is just one part of a series of ChiNext reform measures. Five other notable measures include: adding a set of more precise and inclusive listing standards to better support new industries, new business forms, and new technology companies; implementing pre-review for IPOs of qualified high-quality innovative enterprises, especially those with breakthroughs in key core technologies; allowing eligible companies undergoing review to conduct capital increases and share expansions for existing shareholders; optimizing new share pricing mechanisms; and establishing a sound institutional framework from recommendation and selection to whole-process supervision to better serve local economies and private sector development. Each measure represents a tangible benefit for ChiNext IPOs.
Second, the CSRC chairman clarified that the refinancing mechanism will be comprehensively optimized to enhance the inclusiveness and adaptability of rules, with an overall emphasis on "supporting excellence and science & technology," while simultaneously strengthening refinancing supervision. To enhance inclusiveness and adaptability, four specific measures will be introduced: optimizing the criteria for identifying strategic investors to facilitate participation by long-term funds like social security and insurance funds; introducing a shelf-offering mechanism to guide rational and effective financing; improving the mechanism for fixed-price private placements to align prices more closely with market prices, better balancing the interests of listed companies and investors; and further optimizing the simplified procedures for refinancing. Regarding the "supporting excellence and S&T" orientation, review efficiency will be significantly improved for high-quality listed companies with standardized governance, stable operations, and high market recognition; the criteria for "light assets and high R&D investment," currently used for the STAR Market and ChiNext, will be extended to the main board; limits on using refinancing proceeds for working capital will be relaxed if used for R&D investment; and the interval between refinancing activities will be shortened.
Furthermore, the CSRC chairman stated that in the new year, the commission will continue to firmly adhere to the main threads of preventing risks, strengthening supervision, and promoting high-quality development. It will better coordinate development and security, insist on strict law-based regulation and strengthening fundamentals, and strive to enhance the trust and confidence of investors and all market participants. Efforts will focus on five key areas: building strong "breakwaters" against capital market risks; consolidating and improving the comprehensive effectiveness of preventing and punishing financial fraud; guiding industry institutions to focus on their main businesses and develop normatively; strengthening supervision of new types of business activities; and tightly weaving a safety net for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors.
Additionally, during the economic themed press conference, the CSRC chairman outlined five key directions for high-quality development of the capital market during the 15th Five-Year Plan period: building a more resilient and stable market; creating a more inclusive and adaptable system; achieving higher quality and better structured listed companies; ensuring more powerful and effective regulatory enforcement and investor protection; and advancing opening-up to deeper levels and higher standards.
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