China's economic resilience shines through as growth potential awaits unleashing

Editor's note: Liu Chunsheng is an associate professor at the Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Against the backdrop of numerous challenges facing the global economy, the release of China's macroeconomic data for May 2025 provides a crucial window for observing its domestic economic performance. Increasing external pressures and uncertainties, continuous geopolitical conflicts, and the slowdown of the world economic growth have all brought severe tests for China's economic development. However, judging by the May data, the Chinese economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience, with frequent highlights especially in consumption and exports. Meanwhile, scientific and technological innovation is fostering new industries and opportunities for future growth.

Consumer market: Significant recovery with steady release of potential

As the fundamental driving force for economic growth, consumption showed a strong momentum of recovery in May. The total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 6.4% year-on-year, 1.3 percentage points faster than the previous month. The sales of upgraded consumer goods were booming. Consumption-promoting policies in various regions have continued to take effect. Coupled with the effect of holidays, consumers' confidence has gradually recovered. For instance, some local governments have effectively stimulated consumers' enthusiasm for consumption by issuing consumption vouchers, driving the consumption growth of catering, retail and other industries. At the same time, with the increase in residents' income levels and the change of consumption concepts, consumers' demand for high-quality and intelligent products is constantly increasing, which also promotes the upgrading of the consumption structure. The recovery of the consumer market not only plays an important supporting role in current economic growth but also lays a solid foundation for the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese economy in the future.

Export trade: Maintaining resilience with prominent structural highlights

In the face of a complex and severe global trade environment, China's foreign trade situation in May maintained a certain degree of resilience. In yuan terms, China's total value of goods trade imports and exports in May 2025 increased by 2.7 percent year-on-year, with exports increasing by 7.2 percent year-on-year. Such performance is remarkable considering the high base, the slowdown of export front-loading momentum, and the continuous slowdown of global demand. The rising growth rates of exports of products such as integrated circuits and automobiles reflect the continuous improvement of China's international competitiveness in high-tech products. For example, China's new energy vehicles are favored by more and more consumers in markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia due to their advanced technology and high performance, and leading to continuous growth in export volume. On the one hand, this benefits from China's long-term investment in technological research and development in related fields, and on the other hand, it is closely related to China's strategy of actively expanding diversified international markets.

Scientific and technological innovation: Fostering new industries and opening up new opportunities

Scientific and technological innovation is becoming the core driving force for China's economic development, opening up broad new opportunities for future growth. In the field of artificial intelligence, significant achievements have been made in industry applications. For example, the accuracy rate of intelligent risk control models in credit approval has reached over 90 percent, increasing efficiency compared with traditional manual review. In the manufacturing industry, important breakthroughs have been made in the commercialization process of solid-state batteries. These scientific and technological innovation achievements have not only promoted the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries but also given birth to a series of new industries and business forms. With the widespread application of technologies such as 5G, big data, and cloud computing, emerging industries such as intelligent manufacturing, digital creativity, and smart healthcare are booming, injecting new vitality into economic growth. At the same time, scientific and technological innovation also provides powerful means for enterprises to reduce costs, improve production efficiency, and enhance product quality, thereby helping them stand out in the fierce market competition.

Future outlook: Seizing opportunities and addressing challenges

Although the May macroeconomic data showed many highlights, China must clearly recognize that the complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the external environment remains high, domestic effective demand is still insufficient, and the production and operation pressure on enterprises is relatively large. In the future, China needs to continue strengthening macro policy regulation and control, focus on expanding domestic demand, boosting confidence, and preventing risks.

On the one hand, China should further optimize the investment structure and increase investment in new industries, new technologies, new infrastructure and other fields, giving full play to the key role of investment in optimizing the supply structure. For example, accelerating the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G base stations and data centers to provide solid support for the development of the digital economy. On the other hand, China should continue to promote consumption upgrading. By improving the social security system, increasing residents' income levels and other measures, China can enhance residents' consumption ability and willingness. 

At the same time, in terms of exports, China should continue to expand diversified international markets, strengthen economic and trade cooperation with countries and regions along the Belt and Road, and actively respond to challenges brought by trade frictions and global economic fluctuations. In addition, China should further increase support for scientific and technological innovation, improve the scientific and technological innovation system and mechanism, and create a good environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, giving full play to the core role of scientific and technological innovation in promoting high-quality economic development.