MNI China Press Digest Jan 2: Exports, Tourism, NDRC

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

• China’s export growth may grow 3% in 2024 after ending six months of decline in November, as the U.S. inventory cycle bottoms and the purchasing power in the Eurozone and emerging markets restores amid the weaker U.S. dollar should the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, Securities Daily reported citing analysts. Fixed-asset investment may reach about 5% in 2024, from the current level of 2.9% in the first eleven months, as manufacturing investment accelerates due to recovering demand, prices and profits and lower inventory, said Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank. Retail sales growth, however, may remain flat in Q1 due to the high base effect for the same period last year and low levels of PPI and y/y CPI growth.
• The number of domestic trips during the three-day New Year’s holiday rose 155.3% y/y to reach 135 million, an increase of 9.4% over the same period in 2019, according to data by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The tourism revenue totaled CNY79.73 billion, rising 200.7% y/y or 5.6% compared to the pre-pandemic level. Elderly people, rural residents and residents of smaller cities are more willing to travel, the Ministry said on a Weibo post.
• The National Development and Reform Commission will intensify macroeconomic policy, especially counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, and strengthen policy coordination between fiscal, monetary, employment, industry, investment, consumption, price, regional, science and technology, and environmental protection, according to an article on the party-run magazine Qiushi. It will deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises, and legalise fair treatment of SOEs and private enterprises to promote the growth of the private economy, the NDRC said.