People's Daily of China: "Real Economy Shows Strong Recovery"... Emphasizing Indicator Rebound

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The Chinese state-run People's Daily reported that China's real economy is showing a strong recovery by listing local economic indicators one by one.

On the 25th, the People's Daily devoted major pages such as the front page and page 2 to emphasize the recovery of the real economy by mentioning first-half automobile sales and delivery volumes, foreign trade figures, and more. It also introduced President Xi Jinping's statement that "the real economy is the foundation of our country's development and an important pillar for building future growth strategies," adding that "we will promote industrial transformation and upgrading, develop new premium manufacturing and smart manufacturing technologies to boost the economy."

According to the report, the nationwide daily express delivery volume, which was around 242 million as of April 10 this year, increased to 425 million on the 1st of last month, showing a V-shaped rebound. As automobile production bases normalized, the value-added growth rate of the automobile manufacturing industry jumped from 7% in May to 16.2% last month. Overall manufacturing production also normalized, with the value-added growth rate of industrial enterprises improving from -2.9% contraction in April to 0.7% last month, and further improving to 3.9% last month.

The People's Daily also stated that the government's active tax deferrals, loans, and subsidy payments are contributing to economic stabilization. As of the 20th, China announced an additional 3 trillion yuan or more in new tax cuts, fee reductions, tax refunds, and deferrals. In the first half of the year, regional support measures such as small business loans, interest rate reductions, loan interest subsidies, and real estate rent reductions were introduced.

Additionally, it mentioned that total social electricity consumption in June reached 745.1 billion kWh, a 14.7% increase from the previous month, and the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose 3.6 points from the previous month to 50.2, indicating an acceleration in economic normalization.

The People's Daily also reported that regarding employment, 6.54 million people nationwide found new jobs in the first half of the year, achieving an employment rate of 59%, and the urban surveyed unemployment rate in June fell to 5.5%. As of the end of June, the number of people lifted out of poverty was 32.23 million, an increase of 1.6 million compared to the same period last year.