At the end of 2024, three of the European Chamber’s Beijing colleagues – Beijing General Manager Carl Hayward, Head of European Affairs Ester Cañada Amela and Policy and Communications Manager Mariann Nagy – sat down with our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager, to review the year and look forward to 2025.
The last episode focused on thekeywords from 2024. In this episode, our guest speakers talked about some of the most overhyped and the most under-appreciated things of the past year and gave projections on things we should keep our eyes on in 2025.
Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index in December and 2024;
Foreign trade data in 2024; and
National commerce work conference.
Listeners are also invited to join the event China’s Economic Outlook 2025: Opportunities for FIEs after the Central Economic Work Conference on 16th January in Beijing or online.
MARIANN: the European Chamber’s weekly catchup on China’s business landscape.
RUI: This episode was recorded on 15th January 2025.
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RUI: Producer prices in China fell for the 27th month in a row in December, while consumer price growth continued to hover around zero, according to data released by China’s statistics bureau on 9th January.
MARIANN: Producer prices dropped 2.3 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year. The rate of decline showed a gradual easing from last year’s low point of 2.9 per cent recorded in October over the final two months of the year. In 2024, overall producer prices fell 2.2 per cent compared to the previous year.
Consumer prices edged up 0.1 per cent year-on-year in December, and 0.2 per cent in the whole of 2024. This was way below the government’s target set in the March 2024 Government Work Report, which set consumer price inflation at ‘around 3 per cent’.
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RUI: Data published by China’s customs authorities on 13th January showed that the country’s trade surplus reached almost 1 trillion US dollars.
MARIANN: In dollar denominated terms, the total value of China’s exports increased 10.7 per cent year-on-year in December. The annual export growth was 5.9 per cent. Conversely, import growth was subdued both in December as well as throughout 2024. In December, the total value of imports edged up 1 per cent, following two consecutive months of decline. The annual import growth was 1.1 per cent.
The discrepancy between its exports and imports led China to reach a trade surplus of 992 billion US dollars in 2024. Some of last year’s sharp surge in exports, especially towards the end of the year, was widely attributed to export ‘front loading’, as Chinese exporters fast-tracked their shipments to the US before the new Trump administration comes into office later this month. Trump has stated that he will slap steep tariffs on goods imported to the US from China.
Customs data showed that in the last two months of 2024, the US overtook the EU as China’s second largest export market in cumulative terms. Looking at overall trade, however, the EU still maintained its position as China’s second largest trade partner, preceded only by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is its largest trade partner for the fourth year running.
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RUI: At the two-day national commerce work conference, held in Beijing on 11th and 12th January, Chinese policymakers reinforced earlier pledges to boost consumption and attract foreign investment in the year ahead.
MARIANN: Among steps to boost consumption, discussions at the meeting focussed on the consumer goods trade-in programme, as well as the promotion of services and digital consumption. As for the task of attracting foreign investment, the meeting readout highlighted the need to build a “first-class business environment” and to leverage China’s national economic development zones to attract foreign investment.
Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao, who delivered an annual work report at the meeting, also emphasised the need to lay the groundwork for the next five-year plan, as 2025 is the last year covered in the current, 14th Five-year Plan.
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RUI: The Central Economic Work Conference, held in Beijing in December, outlined the key tasks for 2025. It called for efforts to drive the development of ‘new quality productive forces’ and to expand high standard opening up, while keeping foreign trade and foreign investment stable.
MARIANN: Meanwhile, over the past half-decade or so, an increasing number of international companies have conducted reviews of their global resilience, with their China operations seen as being particularly exposed to various risk factors and increasing trade tensions. The trend of companies diversifying their supply chains has also become more pronounced.
RUI: Join the European Chamber’s event China Economic Outlook 2025 online on 16th January, to hear economists, think tankers and policy experts decode China’s economic landscape and explore some of the opportunities for foreign-invested enterprises in 2025.
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MARIANN: Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to tune in again next week.
RUI: In the meantime, please find useful links in the episode notes.
At the end of 2024, three of the European Chamber’s Beijing colleagues – Beijing General Manager Carl Hayward, Head of European Affairs Ester Cañada Amela and Policy and Communications Manager Mariann Nagy – sat down with our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager, to review the year and look forward to 2025.
This episode focused on keywords of the year, featuring four of the Chamber’s Executive Committee and board members sharing their choices of keywords followed by comments and keywords from our guest speakers.
A draft standard for government procurement of domestically produced products;
Strengthening dual-use products export control to the United States;
Consumer and producer price indices in November;
Foreign trade data in November.
From the Chamber’s side, Secretary General Adam Dunnett met Hainan provincial leaders at an event on the Hainan Free Trade Port hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Pilot work plan permitting the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals;
November Official Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) and Caixin China Manufacturing and Services PMI;
January to October industrial profits;
Listeners are also invited to join the European Chamber Annual Conference: Looking Back and Moving Forward on 10th December in Beijing to hear from business leader, economists, academics and China experts.
China expands scope of anti-subsidy investigation into EU dairy imports;
EU launches WTO case against China’s provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports;
2nd China International Supply Chain Expo.
Listeners are also welcome to join the 2024 Cybersecurity Conference on 29th November in Beijing to learn about the latest regulatory developments in the field of cybersecurity and data protection.
2024 has been an extraordinary year of elections. Two of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the United States, voted for their new leadership. Due to the strong economic ties between China, the EU and the US, the ramifications of both elections could be enormous for European companies operating in China.
In this episode, our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager at the European Chamber, is joined by Stefan Bernhart, vice president of the European Chamber, and Ester Cañada Amela, head of European Affairs at the European Chamber. They will focus on the results of the EU elections and its policy direction in relation to China, and also touch on the implications of Trump’s second term as the US President.
Chinese Premier pledges to further open its economy;
Official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in October;
Caixin China General PMI in October;
China’s installed power generation capacity by September;
Also, listeners are welcome to join an event on 12th November in Beijing to gain an exclusive insight into Brunswick’s China sentiment tracking research.
