On March 6, a press conference on economic issues was held during the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress. Responsible persons from multiple departments including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Finance, and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) appeared collectively, clarifying the direction of China’s macroeconomic regulation in 2026 and releasing a strong signal of stabilizing growth and promoting development. It is reported that China’s expected economic growth target for 2026 is set at 4.5% – 5%, a goal that has been scientifically demonstrated and has a solid foundation for achievement.
At the macro policy level, China will adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, implement a more proactive and effective fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, and strengthen coordinated efforts of policies in various fields. The Ministry of Finance made it clear that the national general public budget expenditure will exceed 30 trillion yuan for the first time in 2026, and the central government’s transfer payments to local governments will reach a record high of 10.42 trillion yuan. At the same time, 100 billion yuan will be arranged to launch a fiscal and financial coordinated policy to boost domestic demand, which is expected to leverage a trillion-level credit scale.
The PBOC will maintain sufficient market liquidity, flexibly use tools such as reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts to promote the operation of comprehensive social financing costs at a low level, and at the same time maintain the reasonable and balanced stability of the RMB exchange rate. The NDRC stated that it will focus on improving the efficiency of macro regulation and building a strong domestic market, and layout 100-billion-level or even trillion-level major projects in fields such as integrated circuits and aerospace to promote the development of emerging pillar industries.
In addition, the Ministry of Commerce mentioned that the growth rate of offline physical consumption during the Spring Festival exceeded that of online consumption for the first time, demonstrating the vitality of the domestic market. In 2026, it will launch a series of activities such as “Shop in China” and “Export from China” to expand high-level opening up. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) also made it clear that it will improve the Chinese-style market stabilization mechanism, serve the development of new quality productive forces, and promote the improvement of quality and quantity of the capital market. The policy “combination punch” clarified at this press conference has laid a solid policy foundation for China’s high-quality economic development in 2026.
