Realize a ＂good start＂ in many fields. Looking at China’s economy from the data, it is full of enthusiasm.

　　CCTV News:The State Council Press Office held a press conference on April 18th. The relevant person in charge of the People’s Bank of China said that since 2024, a series of monetary policy measures implemented in China have strongly supported the economic recovery.

　　The central bank said that in the first quarter of 2024, the total financial volume grew steadily, and the scale of new social financing was 12.9 trillion yuan; M2 growth rate was 8.3%, with an increase of 12.5 trillion yuan in the first quarter; The growth rate of RMB loan balance was 9.6%, with an increase of 9.5 trillion yuan in the first quarter, indicating that financial support for the real economy remained stable.

　　In the first quarter, the financing cost decreased steadily. In the first quarter, the interest rate of new corporate loans was 3.75%, down 0.22 percentage points year-on-year, especially the interest rate of new personal housing loans was 3.71%, down 0.46 percentage points year-on-year.

　　In the first quarter, the credit structure continued to be optimized. At the end of March, the year-on-year growth rate of financial institutions’ loans to high-tech manufacturing industry was 27.3%, and the year-on-year growth rate of Pratt & Whitney small and micro loans was 20.3%, both of which were significantly higher than the growth rate of all loans.

　　According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the trade surplus of goods and services in the first quarter has exceeded 60 billion US dollars, which is at a relatively high level in the same period of history. Under this support, the current account continued its surplus pattern in the first quarter of 2024.

　　China’s industrial production maintained rapid growth in the first quarter, and the market is expected to improve.

　　The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced at the press conference held by the State Council Press Office on April 18th that in the first quarter, China’s industrial economy maintained rapid growth, the production of high-tech manufacturing industry rebounded significantly, and the typical products of emerging industries maintained a high growth rate.

　　According to Shan Zhongde, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first quarter of 2024, the added value of China’s industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6.1% year-on-year, the highest value in eight quarters. At the same time, the efficiency of enterprises continues to improve and the market is expected to improve. In the first quarter, industrial investment increased by 13.4%. In March, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) of manufacturing industry rebounded to the boom zone, reaching 50.8%.

　　From the data, in the first quarter of manufacturing development, the production of high-tech manufacturing industry rebounded significantly. In the first quarter of 2024, the added value of high-tech manufacturing increased by 7.5% year-on-year, 2.6 percentage points faster than that in the fourth quarter of 2023. Typical products of emerging industries such as solar cells, photovoltaic-related polysilicon, monocrystalline silicon, and new energy vehicles all maintained a high growth rate.

　　Shan Zhongde said that the next step will focus on cultivating new kinetic energy such as developing low-altitude economy and promoting large-scale development such as "low-altitude+logistics distribution" and "low-altitude+urban air traffic".

　　In the first quarter, the industrial economy was running smoothly and well.

　　The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People’s Bank of China released a number of data on April 18th. The data shows that China achieved a good start in many fields in 2024.

　　According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first quarter, the added value of China’s industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6.1% year-on-year, 1.5 percentage points higher than that in 2023. The growth of key industries such as electronics, chemicals and automobiles has played an obvious role. In the first two months, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 10.2% year-on-year, achieving continuous growth since August 2023.

　　In the first quarter, China’s telecom business revenue increased by 4.5% year-on-year, and its infrastructure support capacity continued to increase. The application of industrial Internet convergence has expanded to 49 categories of national economy, forming more than 200 industrial Internet demonstration application benchmarks.

　　Monetary policy strongly supports the economic recovery.

　　The relevant person in charge of the People’s Bank of China said that since 2024, a series of monetary policy measures implemented in China have strongly supported the economic recovery. The RRR cut was 0.5 percentage points, releasing more than 1 trillion yuan of medium and long-term liquidity. Guide the market quotation rate (LPR) of loans with a term of more than five years to be reduced by 0.25 percentage points, thus reducing the medium and long-term financing costs of enterprises and individuals. A 500-billion-yuan refinancing for scientific and technological innovation and technological transformation has provided low-cost financial support for a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods.

　　In the first quarter, the financing costs of enterprises and individuals decreased steadily, and the credit structure continued to be optimized.

　　The number of artificial intelligence enterprises exceeds 4,500.

　　Artificial intelligence is a strategic technology leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and an important driving force for new industrialization. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on April 18th that the number of artificial intelligence enterprises in China has exceeded 4,500.

　　Tao Qing, spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the next step is to accelerate the breakthrough of basic key technologies and products such as smart chips, large model algorithms and frameworks around the underlying technologies such as algorithms and computing power, improve the ability of computing power supply and operation management for manufacturing, guide eco-enterprises to accelerate the creation of global competitive general large models, cultivate large industry models for manufacturing scenarios, build high-level industrial databases, and stimulate the value of industrial data elements.

　　Tao Qing introduced a special campaign to empower new industrialization with artificial intelligence for key industries with great influence on the national economy, strong driving force and good digital foundation. Deepen the integrated application of artificial intelligence technology in the whole process of manufacturing, and greatly improve the intelligent level of R&D, pilot test, production, service and management.

　　China’s computing power achieves 23 billion floating-point operations per second.

　　The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on April 18th that China’s computing power achieved 23 billion floating-point operations per second. In the next step, we will cultivate a group of competitive computing service enterprises, build a national unified computing service market, and reduce the computing costs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

　　By the end of 2023, the total scale of China’s computing power has reached 230EFLOPS, which means that it can complete 23 billion floating-point operations per second. The scale of intelligent computing power has reached 70EFLOPS, which is 7 billion floating-point operations per second, with a growth rate of over 70%.

　　Shan Zhongde, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that the basic telecommunications enterprises will be promoted to plan and build more than 180 trunk optical cables, and the interconnection bandwidth of the backbone network will be expanded to 40T. The 20-millisecond delay circle of the national computing hub nodes has covered major cities in the country. In the next step, we will continue to exert our efforts in computing power layout, intelligent computing supply, efficiency improvement and service guarantee.

　　China’s current account continued its surplus pattern in the first quarter.

　　Wang Chunying, spokesperson of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said on April 18th that in the first quarter, China’s trade surplus in goods and services was at a relatively high level in the same period of history, and China’s current account continued its surplus pattern. Looking ahead, China’s current account has a foundation and conditions to maintain a reasonable surplus of a certain scale.

　　Wang Chunying said that thanks to the outstanding export performance of high-end manufacturing and new energy vehicles brought about by China’s industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as the continuous expansion of new trade formats and new models such as cross-border e-commerce, China’s trade surplus in goods will remain at a high level. In terms of service trade, with the resumption of residents’ cross-border activities, cross-border travel expenditure is returning to normalization. China’s visa-free policy and the facilitation of payment for overseas Chinese who are being promoted by the People’s Bank of China and the Foreign Exchange Bureau will continue to boost the sustained growth of tourism revenue.

　　Wang Chunying introduced that in the first quarter of 2024, China’s travel revenue increased by about 30% year-on-year, and it is expected to continue to maintain a good momentum in the future. More importantly, in recent years, the service trade has developed with high quality, and the export of productive service trade has increased steadily. In 2023, the trade surplus of China Telecom’s computer and information services and commercial services totaled US$ 57.2 billion, which was at a historical high. Continued growth in the first quarter of 2024 will also help the balance of service trade to become more balanced.

　　Wang Chunying said that a series of measures will support the current account, including trade in goods, to maintain a relatively stable pattern in the medium and long term. In the future, China’s current account has the conditions and foundation to maintain a reasonable surplus.