GDP growth up 5%. 12 million new urban jobs. Per capita income up 5.1%.
It was good economic news all round from Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Two Sessions in Beijing.
#2025ChinaAgenda #China #Chinanews #economy #ChinaEconomy
It was good economic news all round from Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Two Sessions in Beijing.
#2025ChinaAgenda #China #Chinanews #economy #ChinaEconomy
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, the report takes us through a review of the last year, and I've got quite a few
00:05numbers to go through here. So Premier Li said China had ensured a stable economic performance
00:11in the last year, with GDP rising to over 18.5 trillion US dollars, growing by 5% year
00:20on year. He said that 12.56 million urban jobs had been created and that the urban unemployment
00:26rate was at 5.1%. The consumer price index increased by 0.2%. Now in foreign trade that
00:34reached a record high with foreign exchange reserves surpassing $3.2 trillion. Premier
00:41Li reported that per capita disposable income in the country grew by 5.1% in real terms.
00:48Grain output had hit a new high of 700 million metric tons. He talked about high tech manufacturing
00:55and equipment manufacturing. Those rose by 8.9 and 7.7% respectively. And sales of new
01:02energy vehicles were highlighted in this report. They passed the 13 million sales mark. Energy
01:09consumption per unit of GDP that dropped by more than 3%. And the report outlined how
01:15China's strengthening environmental protection and promoting green and low carbon development.
01:21Energy in China generated by non-fossil fuel sources now accounts for almost 40% of total
01:27power generation. He said the value of added to core industries for the digital economy
01:33rose to about 10% of GDP. Now the work report doesn't just look back, it's going to look
01:39ahead to the coming year. And expected targets were outlined by Premier Li. Let's take a
01:44listen to what he is saying for the year ahead.
01:48The main targets for development this year are projected as follows. GDP growth of around
01:535%. Surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5%. Over 12 million new urban jobs. CPI
02:02increase of around 2%. In setting the growth rate at around 5%, we have taken to account
02:08the need to stabilize employment, prevent risks and improve the people's well-being
02:13as well as the potential for growth and conditions supporting growth. A target of around 5% is
02:20well aligned with our mid and long development goals and underscores our resolve to meet
02:25difficulties head on and strive hard to deliver.
02:32Now the difficulties that Premier Li are referring to, he said, are both internal and external.
02:37He said internally, China had faced sluggish economic demand and other issues. Consumer
02:42demand was sluggish. He cited other instances like natural disasters including flooding
02:47which made economic stability difficult to maintain. Now externally, Premier Li said
02:53changes unseen in a century are unfolding around the world. He said the global environment
02:58currently is complex. And now while he didn't refer directly to the United States, the potential
03:03trade war between the two countries is certainly on the minds of many people who are watching
03:07here in Beijing.
03:09Jen, this report says China will keep the innovation-driven development. What exactly
03:14does that mean?
03:19Yes, Premier Li said that China would unleash the creativity of the digital economy and
03:24said that this would accelerate innovation-driven development. Now this involves a lot to do
03:29with artificial intelligence. He outlined the AI plus initiative that will combine China's
03:35digital technologies and manufacturing strengths. So he said that China will support the extensive
03:40application of large-scale AI models. They will develop new smart manufacturing equipment
03:46with newly intelligent connected energy vehicles. That's things like autonomous driving, AI-enabled
03:52phones and computers and intelligent robots. Indeed, we've been talking to people who are
03:56saying that is really the future here is these AI-enabled robots. He said this would be done
04:01by promoting broader application of technologies like 5G, optimizing the layout of computer
04:06resourcing throughout China and creating these competitive digital clusters, supporting talented
04:12young people. He spoke about involving young people at more high levels and rewarding them
04:17financially for their work to encourage talent growth, homegrown talent in China. So there's
04:21a lot of opportunities for the next innovators of companies like DeepSeek to flourish and
04:26contribute to what he called Chinese creativity in the world.