Xinhua Commentary: China's economic recovery continues with promising outlook

This aerial photo taken on March 13, 2023 shows vehicles at a terminal of Taicang Port, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Despite external challenges, the Chinese economy has shown remarkable improvement and performance this year, instilling confidence in its development prospects.

The economic data for the first half of 2023 reflects this positive trend, with China's gross domestic product (GDP) reaping year-on-year growth of 5.5 percent. This growth surpasses the 3-percent growth in 2022 and the 4.5 percent growth in the first quarter.

Despite a complex and severe external environment, China's economic growth rate is significantly faster than that of the world's major developed economies, demonstrating the strong resilience of China's economic development.

"Market demand gradually recovered, production and supply continued to increase, employment and prices were generally stable, residents' incomes grew steadily, and the overall economic operation rebounded and improved," Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, told a press conference on Monday.

In general, China's economy has gradually shaken off the impact of the epidemic and has been returning to the track of normal growth this year, Fu said.

Structural improvement and optimization of growth drivers are among the features of the growth of China's economy in the first half of this year, which supports sustained high-quality growth in the future.

Consumption has played an increasingly prominent role in driving the country's economy in the first half of the year, with its contribution to economic growth reaching 77.2 percent.

The recovery is also seen in the country's tourism sector. Official data shows the total number of domestic tourist trips reached 2.38 billion in the first half of 2023, up 63.9 percent year on year.

The vitality of China's economy remains strong, as indicated by numerous economic indicators. Notably, the new-energy sector has exhibited impressive growth. The country's production of solar cells and new-energy automobiles saw robust growth in the first half of the year.

Overall, the fundamentals of China's long-term economic improvement have not changed, nor have the characteristics of strong resilience, great potential and sufficient vitality, nor the conditions supporting high-quality development.

China is in a critical period of economic recovery and industrial upgrading. As the country introduces and implements policies and measures in a timely manner to stabilize growth, ensure employment and guard against risks, and redoubles its efforts in shifting the growth model, improving the economic structure and increasing the growth momentum, the economy is expected to continue to recover for the better in the second half of the year.

China's economic performance in the first half has laid a solid foundation for the whole year. China has the full confidence, the conditions and the ability to realize its economic and social development goals for the year, which will also bring growth opportunities for the global economy.