China vows to boost domestic demand in bid for 2024 recovery

China’s top leaders vowed to boost domestic demand and tackle the country’s real estate crisis following a key meeting that laid out economic priorities for the new year.

Under a new slogan pledging to achieve stability through economic progress, Chinese leaders said it’s necessary to overcome difficulties and challenges, which include insufficient demand, overcapacity in some industries and weak social expectations.

This year’s Central Economic Work Conference comes as the post-Covid recovery of the world’s second-largest economy has so far fallen short of expectations. A litany of policy support measures have not sufficiently lifted economic sentiment, igniting calls for Beijing to amp up its stimulus amid renewed fears of a deepening slowdown.

Some of the largest real estate developers are facing serious debt problems as part of Beijing’s broader deleveraging of the once-bloated real estate sector — which accounts directly and indirectly for about one third of China’s economic activities.

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