(Economic Observation) China firmly grasps the bottom line of people's livelihood security, residents' income achieves steady growth

　　China News Agency, Beijing, January 18 (Reporter Liu Liang) In the face of complex and severe internal and external challenges, China's national economy has withstood the pressure and continued to develop, firmly grasping the bottom line of people's livelihood security, and achieving stable growth in residents' income.

　　According to data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China's gross domestic product (GDP) will exceed 120 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below) in 2022, reaching 121 trillion yuan.

Calculated by the average annual exchange rate, 120 trillion yuan is equivalent to about 18 trillion U.S. dollars, ranking second in the world.

From the perspective of GDP growth rate, China's GDP growth rate is 3%, which is still a relatively fast rate compared with major international economies.

According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund, the GDP growth of the United States and Japan in 2022 will not exceed 2%.

　　In the past year, in the face of repeated impacts from multiple unexpected factors, it was not easy for the Chinese economy to achieve the above achievements.

Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, emphasized that this means that China's economy has strong resilience, great potential, and wide space, and the fundamentals of long-term improvement have not changed.

　　It is worth mentioning that while China's GDP growth has achieved rapid growth, residents' income has also grown steadily.

Data show that in 2022, the per capita disposable income of national residents will increase by 2.9% in real terms, which will basically keep pace with economic growth.

　　Zhao Xijun, co-director of the China Capital Market Research Institute of Renmin University of China, pointed out that under normal circumstances, economic growth is positively correlated with residents’ income. Fast economic growth will also speed up residents’ income, but the two do not have to achieve the same rate of simultaneous growth. The key depends on the government's efforts to protect people's livelihood.

The more policymakers emphasize people's livelihood, the more people will enjoy the benefits of economic growth.

　　Through the data disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics, we can further see the Chinese government's investment in the field of people's livelihood in the past year.

　　The data shows that in 2022, China's official income protection for residents will be strengthened, and the per capita net transfer income of national residents will increase by 5.5% in nominal terms compared with the previous year, which is faster than the growth rate of all residents' income.

Investment in people's livelihood will increase. In 2022, investment in the social sector will increase by 10.9% over the previous year, of which investment in health and social work will increase by 26.1%, an increase of 6.6 percentage points over the previous year.

　　At the same time, in the field of employment, in 2022, 12.06 million new jobs will be created in China's urban areas, exceeding the expected target of 11 million; The stability of employment has had a positive impact, effectively guaranteeing employment and income sources, and effectively stabilizing the basic employment market.

　　According to Pang Ming, Chief Economist and Director of Research Department of Jones Lang LaSalle Greater China, maintaining a stable price level is also the key to effectively protecting people's livelihood.

In 2022, China's consumer price index (CPI) will rise by 2% for the whole year, and the monthly increase will always be below 3%, which is significantly lower than the inflation level of other major economies in the world.

　　"This marks that China has coordinated and completed the tasks of stabilizing prices, promoting development, and protecting people's livelihood, effectively ensuring food security and energy security, effectively relieving the cost pressure of mid- and downstream enterprises, and continuously optimizing the profit structure of upstream and downstream industries. It has stabilized market expectations and the overall economic and social situation," Pang Ming said.

　　Looking forward to 2023, Kang Yi said that China's economy will improve as a whole, and many favorable conditions will continue to create a good environment for the stable growth of GDP and residents' income.

"As the economy improves, employment will improve accordingly, and residents' income will increase accordingly, which will effectively drive the improvement of residents' consumption capacity and willingness to consume."

　　Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that the epidemic in the past three years has had a greater impact on small, medium and micro enterprises, individual industrial and commercial households, flexible employees, and self-employed operators.

In this regard, he suggested that we should take the opportunity of further implementing the policy of helping enterprises and benefiting the people and optimizing and adjusting the epidemic prevention policy to effectively increase the income of these two groups of people.

At the same time, it is necessary to continue to expand the coverage under the existing policy framework, to include qualified people in difficulties and low-income groups into the scope of protection, and to ensure the stable growth of income of these people.

　　Kang Yi emphasized that as China's epidemic prevention and control enters a new stage, various policies are continuously implemented, the order of production and life is expected to be restored at an accelerated pace, and the endogenous power of China's economic growth will continue to accumulate and strengthen.

In the next step, the government will continue to do a good job in stabilizing employment and increasing income, so as to effectively protect people's livelihood.

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