Opinion | Buzz around China’s reopening underscores its importance to global economy
- Beijing’s vow to prioritise growth and global connections is the confidence boost the world needs
- As a major source of trade and investment, and with an ever-growing circle of friends and partners, the significance of China’s return cannot be overstated
Doubts about China’s direction in 2023 were laid to rest by Liu. “We will strive to maintain reasonable economic growth and keep prices and jobs stable,” he said. “More focus will be placed on expanding domestic demand, keeping supply chains stable, supporting the private sector, reforming the state-owned enterprises, attracting foreign investment, and preventing economic and financial risks.”
“If we work hard enough, we are confident that growth will most likely return to its normal trend in 2023, and the Chinese economy will see a significant improvement. A noticeable increase of imports, more investment by companies, and consumption returning back to normal can be expected.”
Some global market analysts have reached the same conclusion as Liu. Byron Wien, a strategist at US private equity company Blackstone, predicted 10 surprises in 2023, including this: “China edges toward its growth objective of 5.5 per cent and works aggressively to re-establish strong trade relationships with the West, with positive implications for real assets and commodities.”
