On November 28, economic data released collectively by multiple government departments including the Ministry of Finance and the General Administration of Customs further outlined the steady and improving trajectory of China’s economy with enhanced quality and efficiency. Core data disclosed by the Ministry of Finance shows that China’s general public budget revenue nationwide reached 18.65 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%. This growth rate is 0.2 percentage points higher than that in the first 9 months. Specifically, the year-on-year growth rate of fiscal revenue in October alone rose to 3.2%, achieving a consecutive two-month upward trend. From the perspective of revenue structure, tax revenue accounts for 84.2%, among which value-added tax and corporate income tax increased by 1.1% and 0.9% respectively. This reflects the continuously strengthening supporting role of the sustained recovery of the real economy’s operational vitality in boosting fiscal revenue.
The foreign trade sector presents a distinct pattern of coordinated regional growth. The central and western regions, leveraging their advantages in undertaking industrial transfers, have become prominent bright spots in foreign trade growth. Customs data indicates that the total import and export value of 6 central provinces reached 3.18 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, a year-on-year increase of 9.52%, which is 5.3 percentage points higher than the national average growth rate. Among them, the export of electric vehicles performed particularly brilliantly, with a surge of 125.39%. The throughput of new energy vehicle export ports such as Zhengzhou in Henan Province and Wuhan in Hubei Province doubled year-on-year. The import and export scale of 12 western provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities even exceeded 3.5 trillion yuan, hitting a record high for the same period. Their imports and exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” accounted for over 60% of their total foreign trade. Hub ports such as Alashankou in Xinjiang and Guoyuan Port in Chongqing maintained a high level of daily customs clearance volume. Notably, the foreign trade of the central and western regions has not only achieved scale growth but also continuously optimized its structure. The proportion of mechanical and electrical product exports reached 58% and 62% respectively, an increase of 4-5 percentage points compared with the same period last year, breaking away from the traditional model of relying on resource-based product exports in the past.
The foreign exchange market also maintains stable operation. Data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shows that in October, the bank foreign exchange settlement and sale recorded a surplus of 17.7 billion US dollars, and the bank agency foreign-related receipts and payments achieved a surplus of 21.3 billion US dollars, indicating a “two-way balanced” feature in cross-border capital flows. By the end of October, China’s foreign exchange reserve scale reached 3.21 trillion US dollars, remaining above 3.2 trillion US dollars for 7 consecutive months, providing a solid guarantee for the development of foreign trade and exchange rate stability. Yang Zhiyong, a researcher at the National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that the recovery of fiscal revenue and the optimization of foreign trade structure have formed a “two-way resonance”. The tax reduction and fee reduction policies on the fiscal side continue to reduce the burden on market entities and stimulate their operational vitality, while the coordinated regional development in the foreign trade sector expands the growth space. Combined with the prominent resilience of the foreign exchange market, these positive factors have jointly laid a solid foundation for the economic closing of the fourth quarter and the start of next year’s economy. It is expected that the annual economic growth rate will remain within a reasonable range.
