MNI China Press Digest Oct 24: Power, Plenum, AI

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• China's total electricity consumption grew by 4.5% y/y to reach 888.6 billion kWh in September, bringing the accumulated growth of the first three quarters to 4.6%, People’s Daily reported citing data by National Energy Administration. The quarterly growth showed a recovery trend, increasing by 2.5%, 4.9% and 6.1% from Q1 to Q3. Industrial power consumption contributed 51% to the overall Q3 growth, with automobile manufacturing, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing achieving double-digit growth, the newspaper said.
• Monetary policy demands steady, sustained judgment, a characteristic that AI's high-frequency data processing capabilities do not yet fully align with, according to Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People's Bank of China, speaking at the 2025 Bund Summit. In contrast, Zhou believes that AI holds greater application potential in the realm of financial stability. Predicting risks requires AI to process vast amounts of both structured and unstructured data, including social sentiment, public opinion, and other multimodal information, Zhou said.
• China will emphasise financial support for technology, including increased loans, expanded issuance of tech innovation bonds and encouragement for equity financing and venture capital aimed at technology-based enterprises, according to Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Dongfang Jincheng, commenting on the communiqué from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party. He also noted that regulators will guide more funds toward technological innovation and industrial transformation by optimising and establishing structural monetary policy tools. Wang predicts the introduction of a new round of growth-stabilising policies in the fourth quarter is becoming increasingly necessary.