In Depth: China’s Policymakers Target Consumption to Kick Economy Into Gear

China’s most economically important regions are under pressure to drive the country’s GDP growth this year, with a focus on increasing consumption and overall domestic demand amid an increasingly hostile and uncertain international environment.

The most economically developed provincial-level governments have been called on to “take the lead” in boosting growth, which slowed to 5% in 2024 from 5.2% the previous year. In an article published on Jan. 1 in Qiushi, the Communist Party’s main theoretical journal, to discuss China’s economic roadmap for 2025, Han Wenxiu, a deputy director of the general office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, said they play a vital role in national economic development.