SCIO briefing on China's economic performance in April 2020
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 18, 2020
Fifth, the rise of consumer prices continued to fall and the decline of producer prices for industrial products expanded.
In April, consumer prices went up by 3.3% year on year, 1.0 percentage point lower than that in March, or down by 0.9% month on month. For the first four months, consumer prices rose by 4.5% year on year. Grouped by commodity categories, in April, prices for food, tobacco and alcohol went up by 11.3% year on year; clothing went down by 0.4%; housing fell by 0.3%; articles and services for daily use rose by 0.1%; transport and communications were down by 4.9%; education, culture and recreation up by 2.0%; medical services and health care up by 2.2%; other articles and services up by 4.8%. Among the prices for food, tobacco and alcohol, prices for grain went up by 1.2% year on year, fresh vegetables fell by 3.7%, pork up by 96.9% and fresh fruits dropped by 10.5%. Core CPI excluding the price of food and energy went up by 1.1%, 0.1 percentage point lower than in March.
In April, producer prices for industrial products went down by 3.1% year on year, a decline expanded by 1.6 percentage points compared with that in March, or down by 1.3% month on month. Purchasing prices for industrial producers went down by 3.8% year on year, or down by 2.3% month on month. For the first four months, producer prices for industrial products and purchasing prices for industrial producers went down by 1.2% and 1.5% respectively year on year.
Sixth, the urban surveyed unemployment rate rose slightly and the employment for major labor force was generally stable.
In the first four months, newly-increased employed people in urban areas numbered 3.54 million, 1.05 million less than in the same period last year. In April, the urban surveyed unemployment rate was 6.0%, 0.1 percentage point higher than in March, among which, the surveyed unemployment rate for population aged from 16 to 24, and from 25 to 59 was 13.8% and 5.5% respectively, 0.5 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point higher than in the previous month. The urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 5.8%, 0.1 percentage point higher than that in March. In April, the employees of enterprises on average worked 44.3 hours per week, 0.5 hour less than in March.
Seventh, exports of goods witnessed a year-on-year growth and the trade structure continued to be optimized.
In April, the total value of imports and exports of goods was 2.4966 trillion yuan, down by 0.7% year on year, 0.1 percentage point slower than the decline in March. Specifically, the total value of exports was 1.4074 trillion yuan, up by 8.2%, while that in March had been down by 3.5%; the total value of imports was 1.0892 trillion yuan, down by 10.2%. The trade balance was 318.1 billion yuan in surplus. In the first four months, the total value of imports and exports was 9.0713 trillion yuan, down by 4.9% year on year. Specifically, the value of exports was 4.7435 trillion yuan, down by 6.4%; the value of imports was 4.3278 trillion yuan, down by 3.2%. The trade structure continued to be optimized. In the first four months, the imports and exports of general trade accounted for 59.8% of the total value of imports and exports, 0.2 percentage point higher than in the same period last year. The imports and exports by private enterprises accounted for 43.2% of the total, 2.3 percentage points higher than in the same period last year.
Generally speaking, with main economic indicators improving in April, the national economy is gradually returning to normal. However, we should be aware that given the continuous spread of the pandemic abroad, the steady recovery of the domestic economy still faces multiple challenges. Under the complicated circumstances, we must coordinate efforts to advance both the prevention and control of the epidemic and the economic and social development under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. In the context of regular epidemic prevention and control, we must follow the general working guideline of making progress while maintaining stability, adhere to the new development philosophy, focus on the supply-side structural reform, make solid efforts to stabilize employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and market expectations, and comprehensively implement the tasks to safeguard residential employment, people's basic livelihood, market entities, food and energy security, the stability of industrial and supply chains and the operation at grassroots level. We must expand domestic demand, address difficulties facing enterprises, ensure economic fundamentals remained stable, facilitate stable and sound economic development, so as to ensure the victory of the fight against poverty and to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Hu Kaihong:
Thank you, Ms. Liu. Now the floor is open for questions.
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