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Sylvia Ma

China has vowed to maintain its macro policy support for the rest of 2025 as the country seeks to navigate economic risks – both external and internal – in the second half of the year and plan for its next half-decade of development.
After a meeting of the 24-member Politburo – a major decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party led by President Xi Jinping – that ended on Wednesday, the party’s upper echelon issued a statement encouraging action to support the economy.
“Macro policies must continue to exert strength and be stepped up when appropriate,” according to a readout released by state news agency Xinhua.
The Politburo said it would also “stabilise the fundamentals of foreign trade and investment” and support firms hit hard by recent shocks to the global economy.
On the same day, Xi held a symposium on the economy with prominent figures from outside the party, stressing the need for stability and calling for efforts to boost consumption and break free from destructive intra-industrial competition – reiterating the sentiments in the Politburo’s statement.
Both gatherings followed two days of trade talks between China and the United States in Stockholm, Sweden, negotiations that ended with an agreement for an extension of the two countries’ truce on tariff increases – though the American delegation said final approval would be in the hands of US President Donald Trump.
The Politburo called for “effectively unleashing the potential of domestic demand,” a major priority for Beijing this year, by cultivating new growth drivers in service consumption, improving people’s livelihoods to expand demand and invigorating private investment to drive effective growth.


The fourth plenum of the party’s Central Committee will also be held in October to discuss the country’s next five-year plan, the Politburo said in the statement.
Comparing this Politburo meeting with the one held in April, Larry Hu of investment bank Macquarie said this statement suggests policymakers feel less urgency to roll out stimulus to support the economy.
The chief China economist noted that phrases such as “timely cuts to reserve requirement ratio and interest rates” and “continued efforts to stabilise the property market” – both present in the readout from April – were absent from Wednesday’s statement.
“Policymakers are likely taking a ‘wait and see’ approach to ensure this year’s economic growth reaches the full year target.”
China achieved a robust 5.3 per cent in gross domestic product growth over the first half of the year, putting the country well on target to achieve its full-year goal of “around 5 per cent” and underscoring its resilience in the face of various headwinds, including an intense trade war with the United States.
Given Beijing’s solid midyear report card, market watchers generally tempered their expectations for fiscal stimulus to emerge from the Politburo meeting.
But risks lurking beneath the headline figures – from sluggish consumer confidence and persistent deflationary pressures to a protracted property slump – are still fuelling concerns of a second-half slowdown and prompting calls for stronger policy support.




“China’s economy still faces many challenges... and it is important to strengthen our sense of urgency,” the Politburo readout said – a line echoed by Xi during the symposium.
The Politburo stressed the need to “prevent and defuse risks in key areas” and to “consolidate the upward momentum in capital markets,” recommending those markets be made more appealing and inclusive.
Action was urged to “regulate disorderly corporate competition in accordance with laws and regulations” and “advance capacity governance in key industries”, part of a broader push to combat neijuan – a term referring to cutthroat competition between firms that erodes profits and fuels deflationary pressure.
Local governments were also instructed to regulate their promotional activities for investment, prevent the accrual of new hidden debts and continue to clean up local government financing vehicles – hybrid public-private entities used to bypass borrowing limits.
“With some signs of weakness persisting, especially in weak investment and a renewed downturn of the property market, and with domestic confidence still tepid, policy support remains important to ensure growth stays on track,” said Lynn Song, chief Greater China economist at Dutch bank ING, in a note on Wednesday.
Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered, said it was “a bit surprising” the Politburo readout did not mention efforts to “stop the decline and stabilise” the property market, especially as recent data suggests the sector has weakened over the past couple of months.
Uncertainty in real estate and ongoing trade tensions are likely to be the main headwinds in the second half of the year, he noted, adding Beijing is more likely to “prepare contingency plans rather than roll out immediate stimulus.”


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The decision-making body said the country must ‘exert strength’ to maintain growth and avoid risks after meeting


The decision-making body said the country must ‘exert strength’ to maintain growth and avoid risks after meeting.


China’s Politburo calls for ‘stepped up’ economic policy support

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The decision-making body said the country must ‘exert strength’ to maintain growth and avoid risks after meeting

The decision-making body said the country must ‘exert strength’ to maintain growth and avoid risks after meeting