MNI China Press Digest Oct 30: Premier Li, Fiscal, Logistics

MNI (BEIJING) - Highlights from Chinese press reports on Thursday:

• China must combine efforts to improve people’s livelihoods with expanding domestic demand and cultivating new growth momentum through better social welfare, Premier Li Qiang wrote in an article published by People’s Daily. Authorities should prioritise employment and implement plans to boost household incomes, while optimising income distribution by accelerating wage growth for low-income earners and expanding the middle-income group, Li said. He added that a series of balanced and accessible policies should be introduced to address issues related to employment, social security, education, healthcare, elderly care and childcare.
• Beijing will maintain the stability and continuity of proactive fiscal policies to support its goal of keeping economic growth within a reasonable range during the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period, Yicai.com reported. The proposal of the five-year plan released this week proposed “leveraging the role of proactive fiscal policy and enhancing fiscal sustainability”, which reflects the urgent need for counter-cyclical adjustments including expanding fiscal spending and subsidising consumption to stabilise economic fundamentals, while standardising debt management and optimising government spending structure to ensure fiscal sustainability, the newspaper said citing Liu Rong, professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.
• The total value of social logistics reached CNY263.2 trillion for the first three quarters, an increase of 5.4% y/y, decelerating by 0.3 percentage points from H1, Securities Daily reported citing data by China Logistics Information Center. On a quarterly basis, the figure showed a slight downward trend of 5.7%, 5.5% and 5.2% from Q1 to Q3, but Meng Yuan, head of logistics information at CLIC, expects logistics demand to stabilise and rebound in Q4 with the arrival of the traditional peak season for shipping and e-commerce express, the newspaper said.