BEIJING, Aug. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) is already halfway through. How has China’s economy performed in the first half of 2025?

The country’s GDP expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year over the period, outpacing growth rates in the same period last year and the full-year figure, ranking among the top in major economies. Meanwhile, total imports and exports reached a record high between January and June, with exports increasing by 7.2 percent year-on-year.

This shows that amid the volatile global economy, China’s economy has maintained steady progress, demonstrating strong vitality and resilience.

How to carry out economic work going forward?

A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on July 30 called for maintaining the continuity and stability of policies while making them more flexible and predictable, concentrating efforts on keeping employment, businesses, markets and expectations stable, effectively promoting the positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows, and striving to accomplish the annual economic and social development targets and tasks for this year and successfully completing the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Planning is important, but most crucial is implementation. All regions and departments should take on greater responsibility and act more proactively, focusing intently on promoting high-quality development, consolidating and expanding the positive economic recovery trend, and decisively achieving the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Strategic focus

To ensure sound economic work at present, it’s imperative to correctly grasp the situation, recognize development advantages, and maintain strategic focus.

Looking around the world, unilateralism and protectionism have been on the rise, with the external environment becoming increasingly complex, grim and uncertain. Domestically, the country’s economy is underpinned by a stable foundation, multiple advantages, strong resilience, and great potential, and the supporting conditions and fundamental trends for long-term sound economic development have not changed.

The future of China is filled with both opportunities and challenges.

To consolidate and expand the positive momentum of the economic recovery, the key lies in concentrating efforts on managing our own affairs well and firmly grasping the initiative for development.

From “village galas” that greatly promoted rural cultural tourism to “Su Chao” – the grassroot football league that boosted the “ticket economy,” China’s consumption market has seen robust development. In the first seven months, the country’s total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 4.8 percent year-on-year, while the final consumption expenditure contributed 52 percent to GDP growth. Domestic demand has become a main driver and stabilizer of economic expansion.

Domestic demand as the mainstay and internal circulation are unique advantages of a large economy. The more complex the external environment is, the more we must anchor development strategies in strengthening domestic circulation and take multiple measures to expand domestic demand.

In order to encourage consumers to spend, efforts should be made in areas including promoting reasonable wage growth, broadening property income channels, and boosting farmers’ incomes to enhance their spending capacity. Meanwhile, efforts should also be made to innovate diversified consumption scenarios, improve supply in fields including culture and tourism, catering, healthcare and sporting, and continuously optimize the consumption environment.

The potential of the ultra-large market will continue to be unleashed through deepening special initiatives to boost consumption, while expanding goods consumption and cultivating new growth points.

It is also important to expand effective investments. From restoring old urban residential communities and constructing underground utility networks to improving public service facilities, new urbanization has vast scenarios of “investing in the people.” For every 1 percentage point increase in China’s urbanization rate, it could generate over 200 billion yuan ($27.83 billion) in annual consumer demand and drives trillions of yuan in new investment demand.

To consolidate and expand the positive momentum of economic recovery, it is also critical to seize development opportunities and respond to external uncertainties with determined opening-up.

Since the beginning of this year, China’s foreign trade and foreign investment have maintained stable performance, with a 3.5 percent year-on-year growth in total imports and exports in the first seven months, demonstrating its full resilience.

China is also steadily expanding its presence in the international market. In the first half of the year, China’s trade with over 190 countries and regions recorded growth, with the trade volume with 61 trading partners exceeding 500 billion yuan, an increase of five compared with the same period last year. It is necessary to roll out a combination of policies to continuously leverage the stabilizing effect of foreign trade on economic growth.

In addition, China has also continuously enhanced the attractiveness of its market. Starting from December 18, the Hainan Free Trade Port will officially launch island-wide independent customs operation. The number of duty-free items in Hainan will rise to about 6,600, accounting for 74 percent of all tariff categories. This a part of China’s continuous rollout of policies facilitating free and convenient trade, demonstrating the country’s determination to expand its door wider to the rest of the world.

New growth drivers

To ensure sound economic work at the moment, it is crucial to adhere to the new development philosophy to continuously foster new growth drivers and new strengths in economic development.

At sea, the country’s second domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Flora City, successfully completed its float-out. On land, the CR450 electrical multiple unit, the world’s fastest high-speed train with a test speed of 450 kilometers per hour, has redefined new global benchmarks for speed. In the sky, three astronauts of the Shenzhou 20 successfully entered the Chinese space station, and the domestically produced large aircraft C919 has carried more than 2 million passengers.

In the first seven months of this year, the output of above-scale high-tech manufacturing companies grew by 9.5 percent year-on-year. In July, industrial robot output surged 24 percent year-on-year. As of June, the country’s valid patents reached 5.01 million, up 13.2 percent year-on-year. All of these show that China’s innovation ecosystem has demonstrated vibrant momentum and industrial upgrading has made great strides.

Philosophy guides action. Under the guidance of the new development philosophy, China is continuously boosting innovation and foster new quality productive forces. In this process, China’s unique strengths must be given full play.

China’s complete industrial system and strong supporting capacity have enabled its manufacturing sector to maintain the top global position in terms of overall scale for 15 consecutive years, with the output of over 220 major industrial products leading globally. These advantages will empower China to seize the initiative amid global industrial and supply chain restructuring.

Moreover, China boasts abundant talent, with over 5 million STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates annually. By advancing the integrated development of education, technology, and talent, China will unlock the full potential of talent dividends, fueling even greater innovation momentum.

It is critical for China to seize precious opportunities. With various developments, 2025 is hailed as the first year of mass production of humanoid robots in China, and various types of robots are evolving rapidly. Meanwhile, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is taking speed in China. By seizing the critical opportunities of the new scientific and technological revolution, China is advancing its manufacturing sector toward high-end, intelligent, and green transformation, paving the way for broad prospects of “Made in China.”

To grasp the key tasks on the path forward, China must intensify efforts to address systemic weaknesses, leverage competitive strengths, and enhance institutional safeguards, striving to achieve greater self-sufficiency in key industrial chains. Moreover, more efforts will be made to promote the deep integration of sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation and adhere to green development.

Strong momentum

To ensure sound economic work at the moment, it is crucial to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all sectors to provide strong momentum for high-quality development.

China is striving to fully release policy effects to maintain stable economic operation. In the first half of the year, all regions and departments withstood pressure and tackled challenges head-on, accelerating the implementation of more proactive and effective macro policies.

Notably, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held on April 25 called for stabilizing employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations, and deployed a package of policies that have played a critical role in effectively responding to external shocks and promoting sustained economic recovery. Facts have proven that “more proactive and effective macro policies” are highly practical and effective.

Monetary policy tools such as reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts retain ample room for adjustment. Fiscal tools, including fiscal deficits, special-purpose bonds, and special government bonds, retain room for further expansion as needed, demonstrating that China’s macro policy toolkit remains sufficient.

Going forward, it is important to maintain sustained momentum in macro policies while applying timely adjustments. This involves not only advancing the implementation of existing policies and established measures to ensure continuity and stability but also enhancing policy reserves to swiftly roll out new initiatives as required. By balancing flexibility and predictability, China will be able to leverage macroeconomic governance capabilities to respond to evolving external conditions.

This year marks a critical year for advancing comprehensive reforms. In the first half of the year, China’s reforms have deepened across multiple fronts, continuously injecting momentum and vitality into high-quality economic development. For example, the country implemented the Private Sector Promotion Law and revised the Anti-Unfair Competition Law to ensure fair market participation for all economic entities, while reducing the market access negative list and issuing guidelines on building a national unified market that further dismantle market barriers.

Enterprises are the basic cells of the national economy and the driving force behind economic growth. To consolidate and expand the positive momentum of economic recovery, it is imperative to closely address enterprises’ pressing concerns, spare no efforts to alleviate difficulties, and continuously stimulate the vitality of micro entities.

For example, to reduce operating costs for enterprises, the authorities have implemented policies such as structural tax and fee reductions, established sci-tech innovation bonds to provide low-cost refinancing funds, and promote more flexible enforcement measures like “light penalties or exemptions.”

Now is the time to fully unleash our capabilities and forge ahead through wind and rain.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Economy, we must comprehensively implement the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee, maintain resolve, enhance momentum, and stimulate vitality. By leveraging development opportunities, potential, and advantages, and consolidating and expanding the positive momentum of economic recovery, we will undoubtedly achieve the goals and tasks outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality and lay a solid foundation for a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30).