Prosperity driving domestic demand

A key factor in a nation's development is its domestic demand. In 2019, China's domestic demand reached 100 trillion yuan ($15.6 trillion) and it is likely to be higher for 2020.

The huge domestic demand has on the one hand promoted China's economic growth, and on the other hand laid a sound basis for it to follow a "dual circulation" development paradigm and helped it better cope with uncertainties.

Looking back, one can see that domestic demand has followed a general growth trend of expanding since the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921.

At that time, most of the Chinese people lived in absolute poverty, and the domestic market was hardly worth mentioning. It began expanding in 1949, after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese people stood up and no longer faced exploitation from foreign and domestic capitalists. Their living standards started gradually improving.

With the launching of reform and opening-up in 1978, domestic demand took another major step forward. Shifting the focus to economic development helped improve people's lives and raise their income and consumption levels, which further boosted domestic demand.

Following deeper reforms from 1992 to 2012, China's social retail volume grew from 1.10 trillion yuan to 21.0 trillion yuan, realizing a double-digit annual growth rate.

In the new era, consumption has been the driving force for the economy. From 2013 to 2019, the annual spending on service consumption per capita rose from 5,246 yuan to 9,886 yuan, at an annual growth rate of 11.1 percent.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, China has kept the economy steadily growing by largely containing the virus.

Now, in the 100th year of the founding of the Party, we look forward to constantly growing domestic demand.

KUANG XIANMING, HEAD OF ECONOMiC RESEARCH CENTER, CHINA INSTITUTE FOR REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT