Government policies expected to facilitate high-quality development: China Daily editorial

The raft of stimulus policies the central authorities rolled out recently to boost growth proved to be the Midas touch for the economy, as strong signs of sustained recovery have been evident in almost all sectors since then. The "epic" stock market rallies and robust growth in the country's tourism and consumption sectors during the just-concluded National Day Golden Week holiday are just two of those strong signs.

Chinese stocks continued their bull run on Tuesday after a weeklong break for the National Day holiday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 4.5 percent, extending its rally of more than 20 percent before the holiday break. It was the best weekly performance for major Chinese mainland benchmark indexes in nearly 16 years.

In another sign of rising consumer confidence, the total number of passenger trips made within the country during the National Day holiday is expected to reach 2 billion, up 4.4 percent year-on-year, according to official estimates. More important, it is more than 20 percent higher than the figure for the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down economic activity across China as well as the rest of the world. The National Day holiday also saw Beijing set new records in both tourist arrivals and total tourism revenue.

The positive economic trend is attributable to the growth-boosting policies the government implemented in late September to ease the downward pressure on the Chinese economy, characterized by persistent consumption slowdown, rising local government debts and yearslong property market slump.

In particular, some of the measures unveiled are aimed at revitalizing the flagging housing market, which used to be a major driver of the economy. In addition to provincial and municipal governments relaxing restrictions on home purchase in major cities, the central bank has reduced the amount of cash that lenders are required to have in hand and lowered the rates on existing mortgages to ease homebuyers' burden.

The government also vowed to channel more funds into the capital market as part of its efforts to boost investors' confidence and enhance market stability. It is against such a backdrop that the chief of the top economic planning body announced that China is "fully confident" of achieving its growth target of about 5 percent this year.

"The fundamentals of China's economic development have not changed, neither have favorable conditions such as huge market potential and strong economic resilience," Zheng Shanjie, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a news conference held in Beijing on Tuesday.

As part of its efforts to boost both investment and spending, the government will issue 100 billion yuan ($14.12 billion) in various forms of government investments from next year's central government budget and another 100 billion yuan in similar ways for key investment projects by the end of this year, Zheng said. He also said measures will be taken to boost the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The developments over the past weeks show the government has the means and capability to not only steady but also bolster the Chinese economy, not least because it is ready to take all possible fiscal and/or monetary measures to deal with the increasingly complex internal and external environments.

With geopolitical conflicts intensifying across the world and many economies resorting to trade protectionism, the international market is becoming more volatile, which could have a negative impact on the Chinese market. As such, the Chinese government should further deepen reform and strengthen the economic structure, consolidating the foundations of the economy and facilitating high-quality development.