3rd LD Writethru-China Focus: Xi chairs CPC leadership meeting on economic situation and work

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held a meeting on Friday to analyze and study the current economic situation and economic work.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

It was noted at the meeting that the country has seen its economy improve this year, with public confidence continuously boosted and solid progress made in high-quality development.

However, the foundation for the country's sustained economic recovery needs to be further consolidated, and the country faces increasing impact from external shocks, the meeting said.

The meeting urged preparing for worst-case scenarios with sufficient planning, and taking concrete steps to do a good job in economic work.

The meeting noted that it is imperative to coordinate domestic economic work and endeavors in the international economic and trade field, unswervingly manage the country's own affairs well, stay committed to expanding high-standard opening up, focus on keeping employment, businesses, markets and expectations stable, and deal with the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment with the certainty of the country's high-quality development.

The meeting called for efforts to accelerate the implementation of more proactive and effective macro policies, and make full use of a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy.

Key measures include quickening the issuance and utilization of local government special-purpose bonds and ultra-long special treasury bonds, and timely cuts in the reserve requirement ratios and interest rates to ensure ample liquidity and stronger support for the real economy, according to the meeting. New structural monetary policy instruments and policy-based financial instruments will be established to foster technological innovation, expand consumption, and keep foreign trade stable.

Efforts will be made to increase the earnings of low- and middle-income groups and boost service consumption to strengthen the role of consumption in driving economic growth, the meeting said.

The meeting called for a swift removal of restrictive measures in the consumption sector and proposed to introduce a re-lending facility for service consumption and elderly care.

To aid businesses facing challenges, the meeting urged a multi-pronged approach, including stronger financial support and accelerating integration between domestic and foreign trade development.

Work will be done to cultivate new pillar industries, introduce a "sci-tech board" in the bond market, and speed up the implementation of the AI Plus initiative, according to the meeting.

The meeting emphasized that China should stay committed to deepening reform and opening up to solve the problems in the course of development.

The country will accelerate the development of a unified national market and bolster trials to further open up the service sector.

China will work together with the international community to actively uphold multilateralism and oppose unilateral bullying, the meeting stressed.

The meeting pointed out that China should make continuous efforts to prevent and defuse risks in key areas. This includes efforts to implement the package of measures to defuse local government debt risks, to consolidate the stable development of the real estate market and to keep the capital market stable and active.

Stressing ensuring people's livelihood, the meeting said that for enterprises that suffered relatively bigger impacts from tariffs, the proportion of unemployment insurance funds returned to enterprises to keep payrolls stable will be increased.

Efforts will also be made to strengthen agricultural production and stabilize the prices of important agricultural products such as grain.

China will continuously improve the policy toolkit for keeping employment and the economy stable, according to the meeting. Once decided, policies should be rolled out as soon as possible. Incremental policies in reserve should be promptly introduced in response to changes in the situation.

The country will also strengthen unconventional counter-cyclical adjustments, and spare no effort to consolidate the fundamentals of economic development and social stability, according to the meeting. Enditem