China's economy retains resilience, vitality, potential

Tourists visit the Nanqiang Street in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Jan. 11, 2023. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

Those who claim that "China's economic slide is dragging down the global economy" should retract their rumors.

Faced with the impacts of multiple unexpected factors, China's economy withstood the pressure and maintained overall stability. China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3 percent year on year to a record high of 121.0207 trillion yuan (about 17.95 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Tuesday.

This economic performance was hard won, given the scale of the world's second-largest economy, which surpassed 100 trillion yuan and 110 trillion yuan in 2020 and 2021, respectively, as well as headwinds from COVID-19 and downward pressure in the global economy.

The Chinese economy is integrating with the world more closely and strongly. In U.S. dollar terms, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, increased 8 percent year on year to 189.13 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.

The country's goods trade totaled 42.07 trillion yuan, up 7.7 percent year on year, ranking first globally for a sixth consecutive year, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The figure exceeded 40 trillion yuan for the first time, the GAC said.

In 2022, China strived to balance its epidemic response with economic and social development, steadily improved the quality of development, made substantial achievements in scientific and technological innovation, deepened reform and opening-up in a comprehensive way, and stabilized employment and prices.

The 3 percent growth rate, a relatively high rate among the world's major economies in 2022, highlights the strong resilience, tremendous potential and great vitality of the Chinese economy, and the effective coordination of epidemic response with economic and social development.

With China now in a new phase of its epidemic response, analysts predict the accelerated growth of the Chinese economy in 2023 despite various challenges. The international community generally believes that although China's economic growth slowed in 2022 due to the epidemic and other factors, China's economic and social vitality will be released further as COVID-19 prevention and control work enters a new stage, and it will continue to be the "stabilizer" of world economic recovery and the "engine" of growth.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that China will achieve stable economic growth in 2023, and become the largest positive factor in the global economy.

Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, said recently that China's optimization of its COVID-19 response will lead to stronger and more prosperous growth and contribute to global growth.

The current international situation is still complex and China's economic growth is still faced with the triple pressure of decreasing demand, supply shocks and weaker expectations.

In 2023, China will focus on boosting domestic demand by prioritizing the expansion of consumption, increasing personal income through multiple channels, and encouraging more private capital to participate in the construction of key national projects, according to the annual central economic work conference last month.

"This year's Spring Festival holiday is expected to achieve the best results in the past three years," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy. The Spring Festival travel rush is one of the signs that life and production are returning to normal across the country.

In contrast to those who advocate a decoupling from China, there is a growing awareness of the opportunities China presents to the world.

China's economy is expected to show strong growth, with its momentum strengthened considerably, said Liang Guoyong, a senior economist for the United Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development. "This will provide an important impetus for the growth of the world economy and contribute to its overall stability," Liang said.