The year 2026 marks the beginning of the "16th Five-Year Plan" period. How can China's economic potential be fully unleashed? What will be the focus of macroeconomic policies in 2026? A press conference was held today by the State Council Information Office to elaborate on implementing the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference and to discuss efforts for achieving a strong start to the "16th Five-Year Plan." Relevant officials from the National Development and Reform Commission provided insights on current hot-button economic issues.
The "14th Five-Year Plan" period concluded successfully. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on January 19 showed that China's GDP reached 140.1879 trillion yuan in 2025, surpassing the 140 trillion yuan mark for the first time.
"The annual economic output scaled a new high of over 140 trillion yuan in 2025. The 5% growth rate continues to rank among the top performers of major global economies, with the incremental size equivalent to the total output of a medium-sized economy. The successful conclusion of the '14th Five-Year Plan' period has written a new chapter in the Chinese economic miracle," stated Wang Changlin, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Wang Changlin highlighted the nation's intensified efforts to accelerate high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, leading to new breakthroughs in the development of new quality productive forces. By steadfastly implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, a multitude of innovative achievements have emerged, with the value-added of the manufacturing sector ranking first globally for 16 consecutive years. Significant strides have been made in reforming and opening up, focusing on removing bottlenecks in the economic circulation. Regional and urban-rural development has entered a new phase through promoting interconnected and integrated growth, with a deep push for people-centered new urbanization. The permanent urban population rate reached 67.89% by year-end, an increase of 0.89 percentage points from the previous year. "This means over 10 million more people have transitioned to modern urban living," Wang added.
Furthermore, efforts to address the pressing concerns of the people have led to new improvements in public welfare. There has been a strengthening of inclusive, fundamental, and safety-net social programs, alongside initiatives to promote high-quality and full employment. The average surveyed urban unemployment rate for the year was 5.2%. The orderly implementation of childcare subsidy systems, the gradual introduction of free preschool education, and optimized holiday schedules have provided tangible benefits to millions of households, using improved livelihoods as a catalyst to open new avenues for development.
The economic structure is becoming "more optimized," growth drivers are turning "more innovative," and the overall trend is looking "more favorable." As 2026 heralds the start of the "16th Five-Year Plan," where does the core potential of the Chinese economy primarily lie, and how can it be fully tapped?
Zhou Chen, Director-General of the Department of Comprehensive Economic Affairs at the National Development and Reform Commission, explained that looking ahead to 2026, China's economic structure will continue to optimize, its development drivers will keep innovating, and the overall development trend will remain positive. The steady development of new quality productive forces is expected to unleash immense potential across consumption and investment, technology and industry, and urban-rural and regional development. He suggested analyzing this potential from three perspectives: points, lines, and areas.
From the point perspective, new technologies, products, and application scenarios are gaining momentum. New economic growth points such as new energy, new materials, aerospace, quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, and embodied intelligence are poised for takeoff. The installed capacity of new energy storage has already exceeded 100 million kilowatts, accounting for over 40% of the global total. The "AI Plus" initiative launched in 2025 is empowering and enhancing efficiency across China's vast array of application scenarios. Data from 2025 shows that the value-added of high-tech manufacturing already constitutes over 17% of the total value-added of large-scale industries. "Currently, the National Development and Reform Commission is planning and advancing a number of landmark, leading major high-tech industry projects for the '16th Five-Year Plan' period," Zhou Chen stated.
From the line perspective, the integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, and talent chains is accelerating. Zhou Chen noted that China possesses a complete industrial system, a super-sized market of over 1.4 billion people, and the world's largest and most diverse talent pool. This provides a full-chain, full-scenario advantage for translating innovative achievements from the "laboratory shelf" to the "market shelf." The value-added of China's digital economy is expected to reach 49 trillion yuan in 2025, accounting for about 35% of GDP, and is poised to create even greater market space in the future.
From the area perspective, the innovation-leading role of key growth poles continues to strengthen. China is now home to 24 of the world's top 100 science and technology clusters, ranking first globally for three consecutive years. Following the Central Economic Work Conference's directive to build international sci-tech innovation centers in Beijing (the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region), Shanghai (the Yangtze River Delta), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, efforts are accelerating to form global hubs of scientific innovation and important sources of emerging industries.
Domestic demand has now become the stable anchor for economic growth. The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out the domestic contradiction of strong supply versus weak demand. How will macroeconomic policies in 2026 fundamentally and targetedly resolve this issue?
In response, Wang Changlin stated, "To address these issues, we must resolutely implement the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference by expanding domestic demand and optimizing supply. This will promote a dynamic balance and virtuous cycle between supply and demand at a higher level, fostering more economic development models that are domestically demand-led, consumption-driven, and endogenously growing."
Wang emphasized the need to focus macroeconomic policy efforts on strengthening the domestic cycle and expanding domestic demand comprehensively. The key is to adapt to consumption upgrading trends and align with the needs of the new technological revolution and industrial transformation. This year, the National Development and Reform Commission will research and formulate an implementation plan for the 2026-2030 strategy to expand domestic demand. This will provide strong innovative measures and factor support for using new demand to guide new supply and using new supply to create new demand, striving to achieve mutual promotion between supply and demand and an upgraded economic cycle.
Simultaneously, the focus of economic development must remain on the real economy, accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system. Innovation should continuously generate new supply and new employment opportunities. Adhering to the directions of intelligentization, greening, and integration, efforts will be made to upgrade key industries, vigorously cultivate and strengthen emerging and future industries, and deeply implement the "AI Plus" initiative.
Additionally, the regulation of market operations should focus on deepening the construction of a unified national market to fully stimulate market vitality. The priority is to comprehensively address "involution-style" competition, shifting the focus from competing on price to competing on value. Mechanisms for market access, fair competition, and capacity exit will be improved, alongside strengthened capacity regulation to actively resolve the temporary contradiction of oversupply.
Zhou Chen mentioned that relevant authorities are currently studying and formulating an action plan for job stabilization, expansion, and quality improvement, as well as a plan to increase urban and rural residents' incomes. The goal is to enhance residents' consumption capacity and optimize consumption supply. This year will also see the continuation of the policy for replacing old consumer goods, with the first tranche of over 60 billion yuan in funds already allocated. The National Development and Reform Commission will further implement special campaigns to boost consumption, creating a batch of new consumption scenarios with wide-reaching impact and high visibility.
"The service sector has now become a key area for expanding domestic demand. This year, we will promote the implementation of an action plan to expand capacity and improve quality in the service industry, introducing a package of substantive policies to vigorously support the high-quality and efficient development of services," Zhou Chen said.