A reaper harvests wheat in the fields at Dongjiazhuang Village of Pingyi County in Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province, June 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Wu Jiquan)
China maintained steady economic growth last year despite a general downward economic trend globally, said He Lifeng, the head of China's top economic planner at the press conference held by the National Development and Reform Commission on Wednesday.
In 2018, China's GDP reached 90.03 trillion yuan (approximately 13.6 trillion U.S. dollars), increased 1.4 trillion yuan by 6.6 percent, representing the largest advancement in the top five big economies in the world.
Breaking the growth down to more concrete influences on people's lives, 13.61 million new jobs were created across the country, and 13.86 million people were lifted out of poverty. Besides, the currency exchange rate, foreign currency reserves, and commodities price have also been stable in 2018.
The political and economic reforms also witnessed great development in 2018, said He.
Take supply-side structural reform for example, China reached its goal in cutting overcapacity of steel and coal set up in the 13th five-year plan in advance, which in turn promoted structural reform in related industries, according to He.
The business environment in China made great improvement last year through large-scale tax cuts and reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services, said He. China leaped from 78th to 46th in a World Bank rank on countries' business environment (in China, the rank was based on the sample of Beijing and Shanghai). The government work report issued on Tuesday launched further tax and fees cuts for companies and other measures to further improve the business environment in 2019.
Through achieved pleasing development, China's economy is also facing challenges.
"The global economy is experiencing turmoil, since China's economy is deeply intertwined with the global economy, surely China's economy, especially manufacturing industry, will be influenced by the global changes," said He. "Plus the challenges we will face as we deepen national political and economic reform, and industrial upgrading, many companies have been facing financing difficulty and increasing production cost."
The Chinese government released a series of measures to address the challenges, including the various policies of tax cuts for employees and companies, employment promotions and opening market access to foreign investment etc, released by the government reports by Premier Li Keqiang.
"After powering through last year's difficult time, I believe the Chinese companies will be more adaptable and ever stronger. The Chinese economy will also be more healthy, and maintain stable growth in 2019," said He.
