New development vision unveiled

THE Press Center for the Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China held its first press conference yesterday on promoting stable, healthy and sustainable development of Chinese economy according to a new development vision.

Vice Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission and Commissioner of National Bureau of Statistics Ning Jizhe noted the economic achievements China has made in the past 70 years, saying that the national GDP has grown from 67.91 billion yuan to 90.03 trillion yuan from 1952 to 2018.

He also stressed that China’s comprehensive national strength, social productivity, and people’s living standards have greatly improved. The per capita disposable income of Chinese residents increased by 59.2 times between 1949 and 2018, and the per capita consumption expenditure of residents increased by 28.5 times compared with that of 1956.

Minister of Finance Liu Kun explained how the public finance system has gradually improved in the press conference.

“In 2018, the central government’s general public budget revenue accounted for 46.6 percent of the national income, but the central level’s general public budget expenditure only accounted for 14.8 percent of the national expenditure,” said Liu, “that is to say, more than two-thirds of the central general public budget revenue was given to the local government to arrange.”

China’s “unprecedented” massive tax and see cut saved enterprises and individuals nearly 1.35 trillion yuan (US$ 189 billion) in the first seven months of this year, an official said yesterday.

The governor of People’s Bank of China Yi Gang told reporters that China is not in a hurry to make large reserve requirement ratio cuts or quantitative easing measures, despite recent US Federal Reserve rate cuts and quantitative easing in Europe.

“China’s economy is in a reasonable range, and the space for China’s macroeconomic policy is still relatively large,” said Yi, adding that orientation of China's monetary policy should maintain strength.

“China will keep its prudent monetary policy,” Yi said. He said the goal of digital currency is to replace an amount of the total value of money available in the economy.

(CGTN)