Photo taken on July 2, 2022 shows the view of a commercial street in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province. In recent years, Hubei Province has made efforts to innovatively combine its nighttime economy with culture and tourism, thus increasing the vitality and attractiveness of nighttime consumption. (Photo: Xinhua)
South China’s Hainan Province, central China’s Henan Province and northwest China’s Gansu Province announced that they will step up efforts to stabilize the economy and sprint toward their fourth-quarter targets. Their offerings are expected to further solidify the country’s economic recovery after key indicators improved in August.
Hainan, which has just emerged from a recent resurgence of COVID-19, said it is targeting a full resumption of factory production and a fourth-quarter sprint. The island province’s GDP, investment, consumption and other indicators fell due to the negative impact of the outbreak of the epidemic in August.
Henan province on Saturday said it would make concentrated efforts to stabilize the economy, with a focus on promoting the early resumption of construction projects and making full use of dividends from national economic stability packages and policies.
Gansu Province on Friday promised to boost the provincial economy in the fourth quarter and meet its pre-set annual growth targets. It announced 24 specific policies to stabilize the local economy, emphasizing the promotion of large-scale projects in new energy generation, petrochemicals, water conservation and transportation.
And other provincial and regional governments in China are all launching intensive policy measures now, as September and October are a key period for household construction and consumption. The government’s stimulus policies are expected to boost the market, Hu Qimu, chief research fellow at the Sinosteel Economic Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.
In a 35-point package of supportive measures, Hainan highlighted efforts to restore the island province’s duty-free market. The island plans to issue 100 million yuan in vouchers by the end of October to boost consumption on the island and another 50 million yuan on hotels and tourist spots to attract more tourists.
In terms of foreign trade and investment, the province aims to introduce policies and measures to facilitate cross-border trade, establish a new offshore international trade service center, and fully implement and expand the list of industries that encourage foreign investment.
Henan promised to speed up the construction of various projects in the short term and ensure effective investment plays a key role in stabilizing the market.
The province aims to increase its full-year fixed asset investment by more than 10 percent to 2.8 trillion yuan and targets economic growth of 5.5 percent in the second half, with total economic output exceeding 6.3 trillion yuan.
Henan is the 5th largest provincial economy in China in 2021.
“Henan’s economy is not small. If its growth rate can approach the target set earlier this year, it will be of great help to achieve annual economic growth of around 4 percent,” said Tian Yun, a veteran economist. told the Global Times on Sunday.
China’s central government issued 19 follow-up measures in August, including an additional 300 billion yuan development financing instrument. It announced in May a package of 33 additional measures covering the fiscal, financial, industrial and other areas to boost growth.
While those measures were being implemented, key indicators for August showed the economy’s recovery momentum was sustained, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.
Fixed investment rose 5.8 percent year-on-year in the first eight months versus 5.7 percent in the first seven months. Retail sales rose 5.4 percent, the fastest pace since February.
Overall, the economy has weathered the negative impact of contracting foreign demand, the epidemic flare-up, high temperatures and drought in August, Wu Chaoming, deputy head of the Chasing Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.
With the accelerated deployment of special bonds and projects, the infrastructure investment growth rate is expected to further accelerate, Wu said.
However, the real estate market is still weak and efforts are still needed to support the market, he noted.
A U-shaped economic recovery is likely this year, with GDP growth of about 4.5 percent in the second half and 3.5 percent for the full year, Wu said.
