During a recent press conference on October 8, the Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zheng Zhanjie, addressed the comprehensive rollout of a suite of incremental policies designed to stabilize and enhance the economy.
When reporters inquired about the specific measures for implementing these policies, particularly regarding coordination among finance, fiscal issues, consumption, and investment, Zheng outlined five primary focus areas:
1. **Enhancing Macro Policy Efficiency**
Zheng highlighted the necessity of a more robust counter-cyclical approach to macro policies. This includes harmonizing fiscal, monetary, investment, consumption, and income distribution strategies to strengthen their unified impact. He underscored the importance of ensuring adequate fiscal spending and expediting fund disbursement to drive economic growth. The policy also aims to assist local governments through debt swaps, reduce reserve requirements, and lower interest rates to foster a more supportive financial climate for business financing.
2. **Expanding Domestic Demand**
Regarding consumer spending, Zheng proposed linking consumption initiatives with social welfare, especially targeting middle and low-income groups. He mentioned several strategies, such as boosting support for vulnerable communities and improving financial assistance for students. Additionally, he discussed broadening consumer markets through policies that stimulate the upgrade of major appliances and vehicles, as well as enhancing services in elder and child care sectors.
3. **Increasing Support for Enterprises**
Zheng stressed the critical need for more favorable regulatory practices concerning businesses. He noted the importance of proactively establishing follow-up measures for expiring policies to maintain ongoing support for companies. A key focus will be increasing financing opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, along with promoting access to renewable energy resources.
4. **Stabilizing the Real Estate Market**
To tackle the volatility in the real estate sector, Zheng outlined a systematic approach that prioritizes quality over quantity in new construction projects, optimizes the existing housing inventory, and revises purchasing restrictions to stimulate demand. Certain cities have already started to ease purchasing limits, and efforts are underway to develop a new model for real estate growth.
5. **Boosting Capital Markets**
Zheng pointed out that relevant authorities are collaborating to enact strong measures aimed at directing long-term capital into the market, facilitating the restructuring of listed companies, and establishing protective policies for small investors.
Looking forward, the National Development and Reform Commission is committed to closely monitoring economic trends, assessing the efficacy of these policies, and preparing additional incremental measures to ensure sustained economic stability and improvement in quality.
