As the year 2021 comes to an end, markets continue to be slammed by concerns over Omicron's impact on the global economy. In the ever-changing 2021, what stories drew your attention? BizBeat, the insight you need.

In 2021, China realizes the first centenary goal, achieves a moderately prosperous society, and unveils 14th Five-Year Plan. This news item is on the top of our list. China's foreign trade has maintained rapid growth, leading the world in the economic recovery from the COVID-19…

"China was one of the first countries to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. In 2020, China achieved its poverty eradication target, a decade ahead of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." -- BizBeat Ep. 249: China and the UN, 50 years on

"Positioning supply-side structural reform as the general goal has been the focal point of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which is also the yardstick for the country's economic growth. By improving production efficiency and promoting advanced industries and innovation, China will pursue high-quality economic growth unlock potential demand and further boost economic momentum." -- BizBeat Ep. 260: Why China needs supply-side structural reform

"Trade Representative Katherine Tai is visiting Japan, South Korea and India from November 15 while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is visiting Japan, Singapore and Malaysia from the same day. On the same day, China is taking yet another significant step towards inclusive capital market reforms, with the opening of a new stock exchange in Beijing. Qualified foreign institutional investors, including those from America are expected to get access to buy and sell shares of China's innovative start-ups and enjoy the fruits of their success. Though these two developments are seemingly unrelated, they are actually two contrasting stories of exclusion and inclusiveness respectively." -- BizBeat Ep. 264: Who's doing real business and who’s playing an influence game?

"Rather than being egalitarian or having only a few prosperous people, common prosperity should be attained through hard work and innovation, providing more chances for people to become wealthy, both in material and cultural terms and should be advanced step by step." -- BizBeat Ep. 266: How will China achieve common prosperity by making the economic pie bigger?

In 2021, global trade showed a trend of rise and fall. After achieving strong recovery in the first half of the year, growth rate has slowed down significantly. The smoke from the U.S. trade war with China has not subsided, even with the change of government. The international community's achievements in regional economic cooperation, response to the climate change crisis, and international tax reform show that multilateralism remains the name of the game.

"U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai mentioned that China's rise in international trade will cause a zero-sum game. The term 'zero-sum game' can only be applied when there is stagnation in total trade volume growth, or stagnation in economic growth -- none of the above is happening, and so from none of those points can she be proven right." -- BizBeat Ep. 235: Decoupling or recoupling, the U.S. must remove its illegal tariffs on Chinese goods

"Instead of finding real economic solutions, Biden plays the old 'China card' that Trump played… J.P. Morgan estimates the average American household will be down 1,000 U.S. dollars per year thanks to the tariffs on Chinese goods… And U.S. politicians' top concern is not the extra burden on their people, but midterms and 2024. They are afraid of look 'soft' on China. But excuse me, I never know 'toughness' is a trade policy?" -- BizBeat Ep. 242: It's time for U.S. to stop the trade war with China

"Now, the China-Laos railway can provide a new land link to global and regional supply chains, allowing this land-locked country to become an exporting and manufacturing powerhouse. For instance, with a new and convenient logistics route for trade, manufacturers in Laos can now work to expand warehouses and logistics capacity. All this could make the country more attractive to investors create new jobs, and accelerate economic growth." -- BizBeat Ep. 278: China-Laos railway opens, high-speed brings huge growth

"China-Europe relations have come across growing complexities this year, but the China-France economic talks provide positive energy that's much needed. Next year, France will chair the council of the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron has advocated 'strategic autonomy' for Europe for a long time. The talk and its extensive outcome imply that France adopts a pragmatic and independent China policy." -- BizBeat Ep. 285: China-France economic talk underscores pragmatic cooperation

The supply chain nightmare haunted the world for a year and is jacking up prices for consumers and slowing the global economic recovery. The unending pandemic, extreme weather across the globe, and the recent blockage of the Suez Canal, have all brought more challenges to the global supply chain.

"With product shortages, larger costs and lingering pandemic-related concerns. U.S. online holiday spending is expected grow at its slowest tempo in at least eight years. And this coming Black Friday may be an unhappy Friday for many bargain hunters." -- BizBeat Ep. 256: Holiday season brings little cheer to U.S. consumers

"That was in stark contrast to Germany, which was reeling from supply shortages due to the pandemic earlier this year. But the growth momentum has been slowly changing in Germany thanks to the record number of trips made by China-Europe freight trains. Figures from the China Railway Group show that goods shipments on these trains during the first 10 months of this year have already surpassed the full-year levels of 2020." -- BizBeat Ep. 270: Chinese freight trains ease supply chain woes in Germany

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the biggest public crisis, another natural catastrophe has shown its teeth to humanity in 2021: extreme weather events.

"Now, China's national carbon market covers more than 2,200 companies in the power sector. It already overtakes the EU to become the world's largest carbon market, covering 12 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. And it will eventually grow to include more industries and is expected to play a vital role in helping China achieve the country's carbon neutrality goal in 2060." -- BizBeat Ep. 176: China's carbon market starts online trading

"Climate change deniers are very much like those who denied COVID-19, and the cost is millions of lives. They believe problems in the world are irrelevant to them, because they may think they're better than others. But in the face of of climate change, everyone is responsible. Every country has to contribute to global emission cut, according to their historic responsibility, living standards and technology levels. Now a historic moment awaits us." -- BizBeat Ep. 199: Denying climate change is risky and silly 

"The U.S. has through its dithering on issues like voluntary emission reduction targets and implementation of foreign aid commitments, sent out signals that it is not serious about tackling climate change. Biden's failure to offer anything concrete at the Glasgow summit will only deepen the chasm and raise serious doubts about his credibility. Some experts even feel that the U.S.'s chronic climate debt has made it hard to 'really trust it'." -- BizBeat Ep. 252: U.S. could stall progress on climate change

A sudden energy crisis disrupted the recovery of the global economy. The last time oil prices fluctuated on such a scale was in 2008, when it burst the market bubble and exacerbated the subsequent subprime mortgage crisis. The energy transition is the long-term antidote to the energy crisis, but in this process, the world will feel the pains of this transition.

"This won't be the last energy crisis as the transition will take decades. Greenflation is likely to continue. To better control its impact, policy makers need to be more proactive to prevent market failures and create a safety net to protect the vulnerable strata of the population." -- BizBeat Ep. 237: Why is the world facing an energy crunch?

"China has been striving to substitute heavy fossil fuels pollution to meet its carbon neutrality goal. Solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power are being developed in an orderly manner. However, during the transition period, unexpected factors such as COVID-19 and the temporary outage in some areas seem inevitable. China's State Grid has taken immediate remedial actions since the outage happened and accounted for the supply shortage. Coal prices have since stabilized and business operations returned to normalcy." -- BizBeat Ep. 268: Is Power outages a temporary blip or long-term problem?

Looking forward to 2022, can the pandemic be effectively contained? What is the expected growth rate of China's economy? If the U.S. Fed raises interest rates, how will China respond? Can the global energy shortage be alleviated? How will the climate challenge be dealt with? 

Stay tuned with CGTN's BizBeat, and we will bring you more insights next year!