Top news of the week:

• The State Council calls for steady economic growth at the beginning of 2023

  January 30, 2023

  Premier Li Keqiang presided over a State Council executive meeting on January 28, calling for sustained efforts to grasp the current economic and social development work and promote the steady rebound of economic operations at the beginning of 2023. The meeting also urged to accelerate the recovery of consumption, while continuously promoting opening-up and stabilizing foreign trade and investment. Besides, work should be done to deploy the preparation work for spring plowing.

• China to adjust mortgage loan rates for first-time home buyers

  January 31, 2023

  As China established a dynamic mortgage rate adjustment mechanism on mortgage rates for first-time home buyers, more and more cities cut the interest rates of housing loans after the spring festival. Since the establishment of the dynamic adjustment mechanism, at least 12 cities across the country have adjusted the mortgage rates for first-time home buyers, data from China Index Academy said.

• China’s services trade up 12.9% in 2022

  February 1, 2023

  China’s services trade value rose 12.9 percent year on year in 2022 to 5.98 trillion yuan (USD $884 billion), data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on January 30. Exports of services expanded 12.1 percent year on year to around 2.85 trillion yuan, while imported services totaled 3.13 trillion yuan, up 13.5 percent from the previous year, resulting in a deficit of 275.7 billion yuan.

• China to expand registration-based IPO system

  February 2, 2023

  China’s securities regulator published draft rules on February 1 to expand the registration-based initial public offering (IPO) system, marking a big step towards reforming the world’s second-biggest stock market. The registration-based IPO system, which has been adopted by Shanghai’s STAR Market, Shenzhen ChiNext board and the Beijing Stock Exchange in a pilot scheme, will be expanded to the main boards, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said.

• MOFCOM: China to expand imports of quality products in 2023

  February 3, 2023

  China will appropriately expand imports this year with strengthened cooperation with trading partners, an official of the Ministry of Commerce said on February 2. According to him, China would leverage the advantage of its super-large market and increase imports of quality products from other countries to stabilize the global trade and supply chains.