BEIJING (Reuters) – China will be looking to tweak its economic policies to get consumers to spend more, policy advisers in Beijing said after retail sales emerged as a weak spot in better-than-expected GDP data, underlining the need for reform.
They said that while supporting employment was key in the short run, reforms to help fatten ordinary people’s wallets were needed to boost domestic spending – a priority for President Xi Jinping’s “dual circulation” strategy to cut China’s reliance on overseas markets.
“We need to discuss ways to boost incomes,” said Yao Jingyuan, an adviser to the Chinese cabinet. “Who doesn’t spend if they’re rich?”
The advisers are influential in Beijing, and their recommendations are likely to be considered. Calls for deepening reforms to spur domestic consumption have been rising since Xi unveiled the dual circulation strategy last year.
Allowing more migration to cities, increasing the minimum wage, and easing restrictions like one on the sale of cars in big metros could be some of the policy initiatives to be considered, the advisers said.
China’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020, according to official data this week, making it likely the only major economy that expanded last year.
But retail sales fell 3.9% over the full year, marking the first contraction since 1968, and final consumption dragged on growth for the first time in at least four decades, the data showed.
(Graphic: Consumption drags on growth for first time since 1978: https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-ECONOMY/CHART/jznpnmxbovl/chart.png)
Worryingly for policymakers, retail sales rose just 4.6% on year in December, missing expectations and slowing for the first time since steadily accelerating from the pandemic-induced slump the previous winter.
Incomes from catering fell by 16.6% in 2020, and people’s average spending on education, culture and entertainment dropped by nearly a fifth.
Lost wages, more saving, job losses, and continued fears over COVID-19 accounted for much of the sluggish consumption, analysts said. They warned that if sustained, the slowdown could drag on economic recovery and jeopardize goals to rebalance the economy away from wasteful infrastructure investment and polluting industry.
Officials tout the vast potential of China’s market – 1.4 billion people strong, with 400 million middle class consumers – but many of them have become wary amid the pandemic, building up precautionary savings.
Policy advisers told Reuters that to boost consumption, incomes need to go up, and for that, jobs are key.
Official surveyed unemployment rates, which economic analysts say under-report actual job losses, rose sharply early in the year before subsiding to 5.2% in December. Although the export sector has seen a recent boom in hiring, analysts say labour demand remains weak in certain sectors, especially services.
“We should start with stabilising employment, because we can boost incomes of ordinary people only when employment is secured,” said Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the economic policy commission at China Association of Policy Science.
Xu said that raising minimum wages, allowing more rural residents to settle in cities, and strengthening social safety nets would help increase earnings, and so spending, in the long run.
Some regulations could also be loosened, said Yao, the cabinet adviser.
“In Beijing and big cities, we still restrict auto purchases…there are no such restrictions in London, New York or Tokyo,” he said.
LINGERING FEARS Incomes suffered under lockdowns and strict movement curbs. Some, especially migrant workers, lost months of wages. Urban disposable income growth slowed to 1.2% in 2020 from 5.0% the previous year.
Consumers chose to fill their bank accounts rather than empty their wallets. Households added 11.3 trillion yuan ($246.69 billion) in new bank savings in 2020, up from 9.7 trillion yuan the previous year, according to central bank data.
Fear of the virus, and continued small-scale outbreaks, continues to dissuade spending.
After a recent rebound in COVID-19 cases in the north of the country, around 30 million people were placed under a form of lockdown. Millions more have been asked to avoid travelling for Lunar New Year, usually a consumption hotspot.
“I won’t go out unless it’s absolutely necessary. This saves me from worry and saves me money too,” said Hou Aiping, a retired woman in her 50s who now only leaves home in Beijing to visit her parents and the supermarket.
“Even though the epidemic is contained, and I always wear my mask, I can’t guarantee I’ll be completely safe,” she said.
($1 = 6.4858 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Additional reporting by Cheng Leng and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
OTTAWA – The federal government is expected to boost the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream as a way to encourage employers to hire more Canadian staff.
Under the current program’s high-wage labour market impact assessment (LMIA) stream, an employer must pay at least the median income in their province to qualify for a permit. A government official, who The Canadian Press is not naming because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the change, said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault will announce Tuesday that the threshold will increase to 20 per cent above the provincial median hourly wage.
The change is scheduled to come into force on Nov. 8.
As with previous changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program, the government’s goal is to encourage employers to hire more Canadian workers. The Liberal government has faced criticism for increasing the number of temporary residents allowed into Canada, which many have linked to housing shortages and a higher cost of living.
The program has also come under fire for allegations of mistreatment of workers.
A LMIA is required for an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker, and is used to demonstrate there aren’t enough Canadian workers to fill the positions they are filling.
In Ontario, the median hourly wage is $28.39 for the high-wage bracket, so once the change takes effect an employer will need to pay at least $34.07 per hour.
The government official estimates this change will affect up to 34,000 workers under the LMIA high-wage stream. Existing work permits will not be affected, but the official said the planned change will affect their renewals.
According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase.
The upcoming change is the latest in a series of moves to tighten eligibility rules in order to limit temporary residents, including international students and foreign workers. Those changes include imposing caps on the percentage of low-wage foreign workers in some sectors and ending permits in metropolitan areas with high unemployment rates.
Temporary foreign workers in the agriculture sector are not affected by past rule changes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
