【Key Focus】
•National Development and Reform Commission: Capacity utilization is expected to gradually recover in the next few quarters
•National Development and Reform Commission: Step-by-step, orderly implementation, and the issuance of 1 trillion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024
•The fourth meeting of the U.S.-China Financial Working Group was held
•Beijing optimizes the approval standard for the loan term of the housing provident fund after the renovation of old residential areas
【Domestic News】
Jin Xiandong, director of the Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference held on April 17 to interpret the macroeconomic situation and policies and answer questions from reporters. Judging from the historical data of China in recent years, the quarterly fluctuation of capacity utilization rate is relatively large, with the capacity utilization rate in the first quarter being relatively low and the fourth quarter being relatively high, which is related to factors such as the Spring Festival holiday. According to our preliminary analysis, capacity utilization is expected to gradually recover in the next few quarters.
•Liu Sushe, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that all parties are very concerned about ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, and that the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant parties have studied and drafted an action plan to support major national strategies and security capacity building in key areas, and will begin to organize and implement them after approval. The action plan adheres to goal-oriented and precise breakthroughs, concentrates on supporting a number of important and difficult matters that are related to modernization, urgently needed for development, and have not been able to do for many years, and need to be promoted by the central government, adhere to the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security, and consolidate the foundation for national security and long-term development; adhere to the overall planning of hard investment and soft construction, and use reform methods and innovative ideas to break down deep-seated obstacles; adhere to step-by-step implementation, orderly progress, and issue 1 trillion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024.
•According to the People's Bank of China on April 17, 2024, the China-US Financial Working Group held its fourth meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2024. The meeting was co-chaired by Xuan Changneng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, and Naiman, assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. The State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and other departments attended the meeting. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with the Chinese delegation of the U.S.-China Financial Working Group.
According to the Ministry of Finance on April 17, on April 16, Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance of China, co-chaired the fourth meeting of the China-US Economic Working Group with Vice Secretary of the Treasury Shang Bo on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., USA. Focusing on the implementation of the important consensus of the leaders, the two sides conducted in-depth, pragmatic and constructive communication on topics such as the global and Sino-US macroeconomic situation, balanced growth, and communication arrangements for the next step. The Chinese side expressed concern about the US economic and trade restrictions on China, and made further responses on the issue of production capacity. The two sides agreed to continue to maintain communication.
•The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the preliminary accounting results of GDP for the first quarter of 2024 on April 17. According to the relevant basic data and gross domestic product (GDP) accounting methods, after preliminary calculations, the information transmission, software and information technology services increased by 13.7% year-on-year in the first quarter, and the leasing and business services increased by 10.8% year-on-year.
•In order to give full play to the fundamental role of digital talents in supporting the digital economy and accelerate the formation of new quality productivity, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other nine departments issued the Action Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of Digital Talents to Support the Development of the Digital Economy (2024-2026) on April 17, closely following the needs of digital industrialization and industrial digital development, and taking about three years to carry out special actions such as the cultivation, attraction, retention and use of digital talents, so as to increase the effective supply of digital talents and form a digital talent agglomeration effect.
•According to the news of the State Council Information Office on April 17, Chen Kelong, director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that at this Zhongguancun Forum, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will focus on promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and will focus on the theme of the forum, inviting outstanding enterprises in the fields of 5G, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, metaverse, brain-computer interface and other fields to participate in the conference, and use the parallel forum as a platform to show the world the major achievements of industrial scientific and technological innovation.
•According to the Beijing Housing Provident Fund Management Center on April 17, the Beijing Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a notice on optimizing the approval standards for the loan term of the housing provident fund after the renovation of the old community. It is pointed out that for the purchase of housing in old communities and the completion of the "comprehensive energy-saving renovation", "seismic and energy-saving comprehensive renovation", "single renovation and environmental remediation" and "renovation of dangerous old buildings" renovation projects in the comprehensive renovation of old communities, the borrower will support it when applying for loans. The standard for approving the loan term has been optimized from three years below the remaining service life of the house to three years less than the remaining land use life.
On April 17, Wang Tao, head of Asian economic research and chief China economist at UBS, said that China's GDP grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, significantly stronger than market expectations, and grew by 6.6% quarter-on-year on a seasonally adjusted basis, both of which were better than the fourth quarter of last year. She believes that the faster-than-expected year-on-year growth rate of real GDP is mainly due to the recovery of exports and the stronger-than-expected growth of the value added of the service sector.
【International News】
• Foreign tourists spent 1.75 trillion yen in Japan between January and March, according to the Japan Tourism Organization.
• Ken Kobayashi, president of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said he hoped the government would consider coordinating foreign exchange interventions with other countries to stop the yen from falling further, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency.
• Japan's Ministry of Finance released preliminary statistics on the 17th showing that Japan's trade deficit in fiscal year 2023 (April 2023 to March 2024) decreased by about 70% from the previous fiscal year to 5.89 trillion yen (1 US dollar is about 154 yen). This is the third consecutive fiscal year in which Japan has run a trade deficit.
• Data released by the Office for National Statistics on the 17th showed that in March, the UK consumer price index (CPI) fell to 3.2% year-on-year from 3.4% in February. At the same time, excluding the impact of food and fuel, the core price index of the United Kingdom fell to 4.2% year-on-year in March from 4.5% in February.
【List of domestic and overseas markets】
【Economic Data and Dynamics (Beijing Time)】
Editor: Gao Ershan
Statement: Xinhua Finance is a national financial information platform undertaken by Xinhua News Agency. In any case, the information published on this platform does not constitute investment advice. If you have any questions, please contact customer service: 400-6123115