Mysteel: The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, convened a high-level briefing on July 31 to carry out several key tasks for the second half of 2025, including expanding domestic demand, cultivating and strengthening new quality productive forces, and eliminating involution-style competition for the second half of 2025.
The NDRC pledged to intensify efforts to stabilize investment and boost consumption, while also tackling “involution-style” competition – excessively low-margin, repetitive rivalry – particularly in key industrial sectors. The agenda further emphasized developing new productive forces, promoting the “AI+” initiative, and supporting local implementation of green and digital economy strategies.
Efforts must be intensified to stabilize investment and promote consumption, expand investment incrementally, strengthen the full-cycle management of government investment projects, vigorously stimulate private investment vitality, promote high-quality construction of major projects implement the “two new policies” (large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in) with improved quality and efficiency, and revitalize the market to boost consumption.
Given the significantly increased external uncertainty, expanding domestic demand plays a critical role in stabilizing growth.
At the Central Politburo’s meeting on July 30, it pledged to effectively release that the potential of domestic demand, implement special actions to boost consumption, cultivate new growth points in service consumption while expanding goods consumption, integrate expanding consumption demand into efforts to safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods, promote the construction of major projects with high quality, stimulate private investment vitality, and expand effective investment.
According to a statement released by the NDRC on July 24, the central government budget investment of Yuan 735 billion ($102.3 billion) for this year has basically been fully allocated, and the funds mainly support projects in fields such as the modernization of the industrial system, modernization of infrastructure, new-type urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization, coordinated regional development and opening-up, green development, social well-being, modernization of national security systems and capabilities, and post-disaster emergency recovery.
Recently, the NDRC, together with the Ministry of Finance, issued the third batch of Yuan 69 billion in ultra-long special treasury bonds to local governments to support the consumer goods trade-in program, and according to the plan, a fourth batch of Yuan 69 billion will be allocated in October.
At the Thursday briefing, the NDRC mentioned advancing the development of a unified national market in depth and eliminating “involution-style” competition.
This marks the second time recently that the NDRC has referred to “anti-involution.” On July 23, NDRC director Zheng Shanjie chaired an enterprise symposium focused on scientifically drafting the “15th Five-Year Plan” and solicited opinions and suggestions on coordinated development between state-owned and private enterprises.
Zheng emphasized the need to improve systems and mechanisms for the coordinated development of SOEs and private enterprises, to rectify involution-style competition, and to expand cooperation in industrial and supply chains.
As efforts to curb “involution” continue, positive signals have begun to appear on the pricing front.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the purchasing price index for major raw materials and the factory-gate price index under the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for July were 51.5% and 48.3%, respectively, up 3.1 and 2.1 percentage points from the previous month. Notably, the purchasing price index for major raw materials rose above the critical threshold for the first time since March this year.
In addition, the NDRC also mentioned the importance of cultivating and expanding new quality productive forces based on local conditions, advancing the “AI+” initiative in a deep and practical manner, promoting high-quality development of the low-altitude economy, and stimulating innovation in the digital economy.
It called for driving green and low-carbon development through a full transition from dual energy consumption controls to dual carbon emission controls, and speeding up the establishment of a new mechanism for this transition.
Furthermore, it emphasized comprehensively promoting coordinated regional and urban-rural development, deeply implementing regional coordination strategies, carrying out urban renewal with high quality, advancing the urbanization of the agricultural migrant population, and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization.
Note: This article is published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Bigmint and Mysteel.
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