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China hopes to consumption increase.

 The Chinese gov­ern­ment has vowed to make con­sump­tion the «main driv­ing force» of the eco­nomy as hopes

China

grow that Beijing’s aban­don­ment of zero-Covid policies will unleash a flood of spend­ing by Chinese con­sumers, fuel­ling a global rebound. «The greatest poten­tial of the Chinese eco­nomy lies in the con­sump­tion by the 1.4bn people,» Li Keqi­ang, premier, said dur­ing a meet­ing of China’s cab­inet, the state coun­cil, accord­ing to a state­ment released late on Sat­urday. While China has long sought to boost con­sumer spend­ing, the com­ments from its out­go­ing premier come at a cru­cial moment as Beijing seeks to rebuild the eco­nomy after years of pun­ish­ing lock­downs. The Chinese eco­nomy grew by just 3 per cent in 2022, under­scor­ing the impact of the gov­ern­ment’s zero-Covid strategy before it was aban­doned last month.

Mul­tina­tion­als includ­ing Uni­lever have said in recent weeks they were expect­ing a rebound in demand in the coun­try and banks includ­ing Mor­gan Stan­ley have increased their Chinese growth fore­casts. Still doubts remain over the will­ing­ness of Chinese con­sumers to start spend­ing again. Chinese cit­izens cel­eb­rated lunar new year last week for the first time since pan­demic con­trols were lif­ted.
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