Nikkei:

In terms of the GDP growth rate, China's economy has recovered to its pre-pandemic level. However, the recovery rates of employment, income, and consumption are still relatively slow. What measures will China take in the second half of the year to speed up the recovery of its household sector? Thank you.

Han Wenxiu:

Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has achieved important progress in promoting economic and social development while continuing COVID-19 prevention and control. China was the only major economy in the world to attain positive growth in 2020, with its GDP expanding 2.3% year on year. In the first quarter of this year, China's economy grew 18.3% year on year, mainly because of last year's low comparison base. Judging from major indicators regarding industry, the service sector, consumption, investment and exports, China's economy continues to recover with stronger internal driving forces. The survey-based urban unemployment rate was 5% in May, already below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Meanwhile, we have also seen that the recovery rate varies among industries and companies. Industries such as transportation and tourism lag behind others, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still facing many difficulties.

Looking forward, we will uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. While continuing effective epidemic prevention and control, we will pursue a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, and maintain the continuity, consistency, and sustainability of our macro policies. We will increase the precision of our measures to better support SMEs. We will focus on sustaining the recovery of domestic demand and especially the consumption sector, strengthen the employment-first policy, consolidate and build on the results of poverty elimination, and improve the social security system. We will promote the continuous expansion of domestic demand by generally increasing urban and rural personal income. We will increase employment and income as well as improve social security and the people's wellbeing through high-quality development. In this way, we aim to achieve a virtuous circle featuring economic growth and employment, income and consumption elevate each other. At the same time, we will step up international macroeconomic policy coordination to jointly serve global economic recovery and keep the global industrial and supply chains stable and open. We believe that China's economic recovery will be more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, which will in turn deliver more benefits to the people and make a greater contribution to the global economic recovery. Thank you.

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