China to promptly formulate policies to restore, expand consumption: top economic planner

China will promptly formulate policies that restore and expand consumption, continuously improve consumption environment, and release the potential of service consumption, Meng Wei, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, said at a press briefing in Beijing on Friday.

The measures are part of NDRC's policy focus in the next stage to further inject impetus to China's economic recovery.

China released key economic indexes in May on Thursday, which showed a moderate recovery was underway despite multiple downward pressures. Observers have anticipated more stimulus in the pipeline to further rev up the recovery momentum, after the recent cuts on China's key interest rates.

Other policies emphasize fronts such as accelerating the implementation of 102 major projects of the 14th Five-year Plan (2021-25), promoting the construction of key basic infrastructures and new types of basic infrastructure, scaling up efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, stabilizing the fundamentals of foreign trade, as well as expanding employment channels for college graduates.

Chinese authorities announced on Thursday the launch of an annual new-energy vehicle (NEV) promotional campaign, in a bid to further boost the nation's consumption.

Chinese monetary authorities have also been striving to strengthen counter-cyclical adjustment by cutting key policy rates. The People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, has lowered the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans and seven-day reverse repo rate this week to inject more liquidity into the financial system.

"With the continuous manifestation of macro economy policy, gradual improvement of market demand, and the optimization of supply side structure, it is believed that China's economic development drives will continue strengthening," Meng said.

She noted that in the long term, the positive recovery trend of China's economy remains solid despite downward pressures such as insufficient market demand and internal drives.

In May, China's economy showed a certain extent of softness from April.

Social retails, a key gauge of China's consumption, jumped 12.7 percent year-on-year to 3.78 trillion yuan in May, slowing 5.7 percentage points from April. Meanwhile, the 3.5-percent industrial output expansion in May also slowed from a 5.6 percent year-on-year growth in April.

At the press briefing, Meng highlighted a slew of green shoots among the May economic data.

In May, the non-manufacturing business activity index reached 54.5 percent, a relatively high level. Auto sales also jumped 27.9 percent year-on-year the same month.

Also, "there was significant improvement on contact and aggregate service consumption such as catering and tourism, and it is expected that consumption will play a greater role in driving up the economic recovery growth," Meng noted.