China's economic officials and experts signaled confidence in the country's growth outlook and reiterated a commitment to policy support at the 2025–2026 China Economic Annual Conference, held in Beijing on Saturday, as authorities move to further push forward China's high-quality development in the next year.

The economic conference was hosted by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), focusing on implementing the guiding principles of the Central Economic Work Conference and laying a solid foundation for high-quality development at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030).

Senior officials and economists, including Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs; Xiao Weiming, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission; Wang Yiming, vice chairman of CCIEE; and Zhu Min, former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, delivered in-depth briefings on the key policy directions.

Economy shows resilience, growth outlook upgraded

Han said China's economy has continued to advance steadily despite multiple pressures, demonstrating strong resilience and momentum toward higher-quality growth. Major economic indicators performed better than expected, and many domestic and international institutions now forecast full-year growth of around 5 percent, underscoring China's role as the world's largest contributor to global economic growth.

He noted that international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and Goldman Sachs, have recently raised their growth projections for China for this year and next. Reflecting on the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Han said China has successfully weathered extraordinary challenges such as the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and natural disasters, adding that the country's economic size has expanded steadily and is expected to reach about 140 trillion yuan (about $19.84 trillion) this year.

The conference released policy signals across a range of areas, including foreign trade, household income, macroeconomic policy and consumption.

Foreign trade and macro policy priorities

On foreign trade, the meeting said China's external sector has shown strong resilience in 2025, achieving growth despite a challenging global environment. Looking ahead, officials say China will support service exports, promote digital and green trade, expand both exports and imports, and foster the sustainable development of foreign trade.

They emphasized the need to ensure household income growth keeps pace with economic expansion. Economic policy in the coming year will continue to prioritize stability while pursuing progress, improving efficiency and quality, and strengthening countercyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments.

China will maintain a more proactive fiscal policy, keeping an appropriate fiscal deficit, debt level and expenditure scale to support near-term growth while preserving room to address future risks. A moderately accommodative monetary policy will remain in place, with efforts to improve policy transmission, strengthen support for expanding domestic demand and keep the renminbi exchange rate stable at a reasonable and balanced level.

The meeting also stressed the importance of better coordination among fiscal, financial and reform policies to ensure consistency and reinforce their combined impact.

Boosting consumption

The conference called for further optimizing the implementation of the "two new" policies – large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs – by granting local governments greater flexibility.

The meeting noted that since the beginning of the year, trade-in programs have driven strong sales growth, with the penetration rate of new energy vehicles approaching 60 percent in November. Consumption related to sports events, culture and tourism has also remained robust.

Going forward, China will intensify efforts to boost consumption, roll out income growth plans for urban and rural residents, and continue raising basic pensions. Authorities aim to use new demand to drive new supply and new supply to create additional demand while expanding the provision of high-quality goods and services in line with evolving consumption patterns. Unreasonable restrictions in the consumption sector will be removed to unlock the potential of service consumption.

The conference also highlighted significant growth potential in inbound consumption, calling for improvements to the consumption environment for overseas visitors.

Accelerating green energy development

Green development was reaffirmed as a defining feature of high-quality growth. The meeting called for drafting a blueprint for building a strong energy system, accelerating the development of a new energy framework, improving the clean and efficient use of fossil fuels and expanding the use of green electricity.

The conference urged steady progress toward carbon peaking, deeper energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades in key industries, further development of the national carbon emissions trading market and the cultivation of new growth drivers such as hydrogen energy and green fuels. Plans also include building a number of zero-carbon industrial parks and factories.

Improving business environment

On enterprise development, the meeting stressed continued efforts to regulate law enforcement involving businesses and curb disorderly competition. Authorities will make comprehensive use of regulatory tools, including standards-setting and price enforcement, to foster a market environment characterized by fair competition and quality-based pricing.

The conference also called for further deepening reforms of state-owned enterprises, improving supporting regulations for promoting the private economy and stepping up efforts to resolve overdue payments owed to businesses while preventing the accumulation of new arrears.