Euroviews. China’s new economic development offers fresh opportunities for China-EU cooperation

This is a moment of intensifying geopolitical conflicts, rising global protectionism and a sluggish world economic recovery.

Against this backdrop, European friends are paying close attention to China’s economic prospects and the future of China-EU cooperation.

China recently held the Central Economic Work Conference, the country’s most important annual economic meeting. A series of important signals were released from the meeting.

It is important to note that the Chinese economy will achieve new development, which means new opportunities for China-EU cooperation. We have full confidence in this regard.

First, China’s economy has remained generally stable and has progressed steadily this year.

It is true that there are issues of insufficient domestic demand, operational difficulties for some enterprises, certain pressures on employment and income growth, and the deepening adverse impact of changes in the international environment.

However, we are fully confident that the economic growth target we set for 2024 will be achieved.

In the first three quarters of this year, China’s economy grew by 4.8% year-on-year, ranking among the top performers globally. This is no small achievement for a country with a population of over 1.4 billion and a gross domestic product exceeding 126 trillion yuan (€16.7bn).

With the recent introduction of a package of incremental policies to expand domestic demand and boost consumption, market confidence and expectations have significantly improved, and the economy has shown a clear upward trend.

The composite PMI in November reached 50.8%, with the manufacturing PMI rising to 50.3%, an increase of 0.2% from the previous month.

Retail sales of consumer goods in October grew 1.6% faster than in