Profound changes to the economy set path for high-quality development: China Daily editorial

China's gross domestic product grew 3 percent year-on-year last year, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Tuesday. This is a hard-earned result given the downward pressure the country has had to overcome.

Due to the inherent resilience of the Chinese economy, as well as the implementation of a series of support policies, the country's grain output increased 0.5 percent last year, the value added of industries above designated scale rose by 3.6 percent and the service sector grew by 2.3 percent.

This guaranteed the country's food security, while the world has been enduring the worst food shortage in decades, enabled the creation of 12.06 million jobs, above the targeted 11 million, at a time when unemployment-fueled social unrest has roiled many countries, and maintained the health and dynamism of the economy, as indicated by the investment in fixed assets increasing by 5.1 percent and the consumer price index growing mildly at 2 percent.

True, the growth in the net profit of the major enterprises, the total retail sales of consumer goods and the production index of service industries were all negative. But the margins of decrease are narrowing fast with the optimization of the COVID-19 protocol from last month, and all of them are showing strong rebound momentum.

Global confidence in the Chinese economy and market remains high, as it is well known that the fundamentals of the world's second-largest economy remain stable, its comparative strengths in scale and efficiency are still remarkable and its status as a major source and destination of foreign investment and as a logistics hub have only been consolidated by its renewed commitment to opening-up. While the 7.7 percent increase in its foreign trade last year, despite the decoupling attempts of the United States, has reinforced its position as the largest goods trader.

The challenges China has faced over the past year from the epidemic and geopolitics have only served to spur the country to double down on its efforts to accelerate the upgrading of its industries and promote innovation-driven growth. The added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing grew by 7.4 percent and 5.6 percent last year, and investment in high-tech industries grew by 18.9 percent, outpacing total fixed-asset investment by 13.8 percentage points. Investment in high-tech manufacturing and services grew by 22.2 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.

That infrastructure investment grew by 9.4 percent, manufacturing by 9.1 percent, while that in the real estate industry, a major guzzler of investment for a long time, was down by 10 percent shows that the economy is restructuring in favor of sustainable growth and innovation.

Last but not least, although the country's population was 850,000 less last year than the year before, the first time it has shrunk in 61 years, that does not merit much ado, as the easing of the pandemic situation, the improvement in the quality of the labor force, people's livelihoods and public services can help prolong the plateau period to avoid a sharp decline of the population and its consequential shocks on the economy.

In a nutshell, the Chinese economy is undoubtedly undergoing profound changes. But the country still grips the initiative of its development in its own hands. It can, and will, continue to make the most of what it has to pursue high-quality development.