By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-20 10:56:44 | Updated at 2025-03-20 23:30:49
13 hours ago
China’s economy is set to bottom out, with new growth prospects emerging, but data released so far this year still points to deflationary risks, scholars from Peking University said, urging a faster pace of policy implementation to support the country’s economic recovery.
Liu Qiao, dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, told a seminar in Beijing on Wednesday that last year was likely to have been a tougher one for the Chinese economy than any year in the next decade.
Despite ongoing uncertainties, particularly trade tensions with the United States, Liu said China is on a path to recovery.
He said the embrace of technological innovation by the country’s sizeable manufacturing sector could play a pivotal role in boosting total factor productivity.
Additionally, the success of the home-grown DeepSeek artificial intelligence model suggested there were significant opportunities for enhancing productivity in different industries.
New sectors are emerging as significant driving forces, said Yan Se, an associate professor at Guanghua, with auto industry revenue surpassing property sales by over 1 trillion yuan (US$138.29 billion) last year.
Those emerging sectors will play a key role in supporting China’s economic expansion this year, with the real estate sector – a traditional pillar of the economy – set to stabilise after a significant downturn in recent years, Yan said.
