Since the beginning of this year, the China’s economy has been moving forward, overcoming obstacles and showing a sustained improvement amid a complex and challenging global environment characterized by a sluggish world economic recovery and persistently high global inflation. Its economic growth rate has been significantly faster than that of major developed economies worldwide, showing a strong resilience and tremendous potential for economic development. Where does the stability of the China’s economy lie? The figures speak for themselves. In the first three quarters of this year, the year-on-year growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) was 5.2%; the nationwide urban survey unemployment rate was 5.3%, a year-on-year drop of 0.3%; the scale of foreign exchange reserves remained stable at more than $3.1 trillion; and in the first 11 months, the national consumer price index rose by 0.3% year-on-year. Under the improving fundamentals, two features are particularly noteworthy: first, the internal driving force of economic development has been increasing. In the first three quarters, the contribution of final consumption expenditure to economic growth increased to 83.2%, of which the contribution rate rose to 94.8% in the third quarter; in the first 10 months, the national fixed-asset investment increased by 2.9% year-on-year, and the investment structure continued to be optimized, with a consecutive two-month narrowing of the decline in private investment. Second, the quality and efficiency of economic development continue to improve. In the first 10 months, the year-on-year growth of the value added of large-scale industries was 4.1%; new driving forces are growing rapidly, with the production of solar cells and new energy vehicles increasing by 63.7% and 26.7% respectively in the first 10 months. The trend of the continuous recovery and improvement of the China’s economy is visible globally. A number of international institutions have recently raised China’s economic growth expectations, casting a “vote of confidence”. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently raised the forecast of China’s GDP growth in 2023 and 2024 from 5% and 4.2% to 5.4% and 4.6%, respectively; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also raised its forecast of China’s GDP growth in 2023 from 5.1% to 5.2%. Foreign institutions have been net buyers of Chinese bonds for 9 consecutive months, with a cumulative net purchase volume of nearly 1 trillion RMB since the beginning of this year, of which the net purchase in October exceeded 200 billion RMB. Since the third quarter, the bond holdings of foreign institutions has maintained a rapid growth, with an increase of nearly 40 billion RMB in October, reflecting the confidence in China’s sovereign credit and the sustained improvement of China’ economy. China’s actual use of foreign investment in 2023 remains at a historical high. In the first 10 months of this year, 41,947 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, a year-on-year increase of 32.1%. Not long ago, the Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing comprehensively summed up China’s economic work in 2023, deeply analyzed the current economic situation and systematically deployed China’s economic work in 2024. The meeting pointed out that in 2023, the Chinese economy has rebounded and improved, high-quality development has been solidly promoted, and solid steps have been taken towards building a socialist modern country in all respects. It is widely believed in the economic community that China will accelerate economic structural transformation, improve the quality of development, continue to promote major reforms and usher in new momentum for economic development, which is a significant positive signal for global investors in the coming year. In the first 10 months of this year, Pakistan’s exports of sesame seeds to China were worth 170 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 100%. According to the statistics of the State Bank of Pakistan, China’s net direct investment in Pakistan in October was 31.7 million US dollars, ranking first in foreign direct investment. We believe that both China and Pakistan will continue to give full play to each other’s advantages. Building on the important achievements in the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, further deepening and expanding economic and trade cooperation, achieving mutual economic prosperity between China and Pakistan, and elevating the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to a new level will make greater contributions to the peace and stability of both countries and the region. Source: Business Recorder
