China's H1 2026 GDP Grows 4.7% with RMB 3.6 Trillion Increase; Politburo Meeting Sets Out Measures to Expand

In the first half of 2026, gross domestic product expanded 4.7% year on year, with an increment of RMB 3.6 trillion, the largest first-half increase in five years. During the same period, total retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.3% year on year, with sales of goods up 1.1%; national fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) declined 5.7% year on year. On July 30, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting, emphasizing the need to attach great importance to the difficulties and challenges in economic operations, and requiring firm confidence and determination to overcome them while making good use of various opportunities and advantages.

The meeting outlined several policy directions for expanding domestic demand. In building a modern industrial system, it proposed coordinating the cultivation of new growth drivers and the upgrading of traditional ones, promoting breakthroughs in frontier technologies and the development of future industries, creating new pillar industries, and steadily advancing the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Regarding the positive interaction between consumption and investment, it called for adapting to the consumption needs of different groups to expand quality supply, and accelerating the construction of communication networks, logistics networks, and smart power grids to drive innovation in consumption scenarios and reduce costs. To remove institutional and systemic barriers, it proposed formulating and implementing regulations for building a unified national market, forming a complete domestic demand system that connects production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, and regularly addressing overdue payments to enterprises, thereby improving the environment for the development of the private economy.

In terms of people's livelihoods, the meeting made arrangements including promoting steady income growth for farmers, strengthening employment support for key groups, safeguarding the rights and interests of flexible and new-form employment workers, ensuring services for the elderly and children, and stabilizing the real estate market. At the policy implementation level, it stressed accelerating the implementation of existing policies to produce tangible results, speeding up fiscal expenditure and the use of bond funds to effectively leverage infrastructure investment growth; optimizing coordinated fiscal and monetary policies to promote domestic demand, with fiscal funds safeguarding livelihood bottom lines and exploring new forms of leveraging social investment; and promptly formulating and introducing pragmatic and effective incremental policies to reserve buffer space for potential economic fluctuations in the second half of the year.