The annual sessions of China’s national legislature and political advisory body have offered some clues of what would be important topics in the 14th Five Year Plan (2021-25), which is now being drafted for deliberation at next year’s session of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The plan sets forth China’s strategic intentions and defines its major objectives, tasks and measures for economic and social development. The government has stressed efforts to ensure better integration of the roles of the market and the government in resource allocation. “We will boost the flow of human resources, foster technology and data markets, and thus unleash the potential of all types of production factors,” Premier Li Keqiang said in his Government World Report, delivered to the recent session of the NPC. Expanding domestic demand is intended to tap into the enormous potential of the market at home amid tumbling external demand.

Back in November, when Premier Li outlined what a quality 14th Five Year Plan would look like, he cited a batch of major reform and opening-up initiatives to enhance the endogenous engines for growth and to stimulate market vitality. The work report highlighted energizing market entities through reform and strengthening new drivers of growth. Efforts will also be made this year to encourage manufacturing upgrade, emerging industries growth, as well as startups and innovation nationwide. Further improvement in the business environment, coordinated development across regions, innovation-driven development, and a better environment may be among the priorities of China in the 2021-25 period.

China’s industrial profits improved in April as output and sales rebounded amid nationwide efforts to balance the coronavirus epidemic battle with economic development. In April, industrial profits of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least CNY20 million totaled CNY478.1 billion, down 4.3% from a year earlier. This compares with a plunge of 34.9% in March. In the first four months, industrial profits totaled CNY1.26 trillion, down 27.4% from last year.

The World Bank’s International Comparison Program (ICP) has released its latest GDP figures of 176 countries. For the first time, the ICP finds that China’s total real inflation-adjusted income is slightly larger than that of the U.S. In purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, China’s 2017 GDP was USD19.617 trillion, whereas the U.S.’s stood at USD19.519 trillion. Using actual exchange rates, the U.S. economy is still larger than China’s.