On 17 May, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the national economy in April 2024. The data showed that the national economy operated steadily in April, with major indicators such as industry, exports, employment and prices generally improving, new kinetic energy maintaining faster growth, the national economy continuing its upturn and improving trend, and positive factors accumulating and increasing. The digital core industry has demonstrated strong development momentum in many areas such as production, investment and consumption.

Digital intelligence plays a leading role

From the industrial production point of view, in April, 3D printing equipment, new energy vehicles, integrated circuit product output increased by 55.0%, 39.2%, 31.9% year-on-year, high-tech manufacturing faster growth. From the point of view of the service industry, in April, the national service industry production index increased by 3.5 per cent year-on-year, of which, the production index of information transmission, software and information technology services increased by 10.8 per cent year-on-year, faster than the service industry production index by 7.3 percentage points.

From the point of investment, under the support of large-scale equipment renewal and other policies, and driven by the steady advancement of high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing industries, the investment in equipment renewal has been growing rapidly, and the investment in manufacturing industry has been increasing well. Data show that from January to April, manufacturing technology transformation investment growth of 8.5 per cent, high-tech industry investment growth of 11.1 per cent. Among them, the aviation spacecraft and equipment manufacturing investment growth of 49.6 per cent, e-commerce services investment growth of 27.6 per cent, information services investment growth of 19.9 per cent, technology upgrading investment to achieve faster growth.

From the perspective of consumption, the total retail sales of consumer goods in April increased by 0.03 per cent from the previous month, maintaining a stable growth trend. Among them, online consumption played an obvious role, with online retail sales of physical commodities increasing by 11.1 per cent year-on-year from January to April, accounting for 23.9 per cent of total retail sales and 0.6 per cent more than in January to March. Digital consumption, green consumption and other hotspots have added new impetus to the recovery of the consumer market, and the consumer market in general has shown a sustained recovery trend.

At the same time, high-quality development continued to make new progress. New quality productivity accelerated cultivation and growth, medium- and high-end manufacturing accelerated growth, industrial structure continued to upgrade. in April, the value added of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing industries above designated size grew by 9.9 per cent and 11.3 per cent year-on-year respectively, accelerated by 3.9 and 3.7 per cent points compared with the previous month, and continued to account for a higher proportion of the entire industrial sector. The new momentum of consumption continued to grow, and the potential for new types of consumption, such as cultural and tourism consumption, continued to be unleashed. The rapid development of new models such as instant retailing and live commerce online retail sales of physical goods up 11.1 per cent year-on-year from January to April.

New Digital Dynamics and New Advantages Continue to Emerge

Recently, the OECD and other international organisations have raised their forecasts for China's economic growth this year. In this regard, Liu Aihua, prolocutor for the National Bureau of Statistics, chief economist and director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the National Economy, said that since the beginning of this year, the economic operation has generally continued to rebound and improve, and high-quality development has been steadily advancing, and a number of international organisations and consulting agencies have recently raised their expectations of China's annual economic growth rate, which demonstrates the international community's confidence in the development of China's economy.

At present, China is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading, the innovation-driven development strategy is being implemented in depth, the construction of a modern industrial system is accelerating, the digital economy, green and low-carbon development has given rise to more new growth points, and new kinetic energies are being rapidly formed and growing, which has strongly strengthened and resilience of economic development.

The data released at the meeting showed that from January to April, the proportion of equipment manufacturing industry above designated size accounted for 32.4% of all industry above designated size, and the proportion of value-added of high-tech manufacturing industry reached 15.4%, which has continued to improve since the beginning of this year; new energy automobile and solar cell production increased by 33.2% and 18.2% year-on-year, respectively; and the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 11.1%, which accounted for 11.1% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. The share of online retail sales of physical goods increased by 11.1 per cent, accounting for 23.9 per cent of the total retail sales of consumer goods. As these new industries, products and modes continue to grow, the leading role of innovation will continue to manifest itself and the space for economic development will be further expanded.

‘On the production side, large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in policies in the industrial sector will release greater market space, and the booming development of information technology, digital technology, smart technology, and green technology will further help accelerate the cultivation and growth of new kinetic energy and enhance the momentum of industrial development.’ Liu Aihua said that in terms of consumption, with the continuous emergence of new scenes of consumption, the accelerated integration of new business forms, the continuous expansion of consumption space, as well as the gradual implementation of consumer goods trade-in and other policies to promote consumption, the potential for consumption is expected to be continuously released.

Liu Aihua said, at the same time, we should also see that the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the current external environment has risen significantly, the domestic effective demand is insufficient, the pressure of business operations is greater, more hidden risks and other issues remain, the domestic cycle is not smooth enough, the foundation of the upturn needs to be reinforced. In the next stage, it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, adhere to the overall keynote of seeking progress amidst stability, completely, accurately and comprehensively carry out the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, make efforts to promote high-quality development, and make efforts to effectively implement the macro-policies that have already been determined, consolidate and strengthen the momentum of the economic upturn, and continue to push the economy to achieve effective qualitative and quantitative improvement. To achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth.