BEIJING, Feb 11 (Xinhua): Some 21.6 million companies were registered in the past five years in China, thanks to the government's push for entrepreneurship and innovation to bolster growth.
Since China introduced mass entrepreneurship and innovation policies in 2014, more than 4,200 new hackspace companies have been created, serving over 120,000 start-up businesses and raising over 5.5 billion yuan (870 million U.S. dollars)
In 2017, online sales increased by 28 per cent and express delivery volume grew by nearly 30 per cent. A string of new growth engines such as sharing and digital economies have been established.
The government has cut red tape, reduced taxes and slashed fees for enterprises.
Mass entrepreneurship and innovation has been an effective driver for both economic growth and the consistent transition between traditional and new growth engines. It has also significantly contributed to creation of new jobs and increase in income.
Meanwhile, China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.5 per cent year-on-year in January, in line with economist forecasts. The index was down from December's 1.8 per cent, driven largely by the carryover effect, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) statistician Sheng Guoqing said Friday.
"Food and non-food prices surged in January last year when the Spring Festival holiday formed a high base effect, help bringing the index down last month by 0.3 percentage points," said Lian Ping, chief economist with the Bank of Communications.
Service and non-food prices climbed 2.3 per cent and two per cent year on year, respectively, according to the NBS.
On a monthly basis, CPI was up 0.6 per cent, higher than the 0.3-per cent in the previous month.
The month-on-month rise was mainly attributed to higher food prices, influenced by bad weather, according to Sheng.
"The inflation in February would probably be the highest this year since the CPI was 0.8 per cent during the same period last year, the lowest month in 2017," Lian said.
However, the possible index hike in February will not bring much inflationary pressure to the whole year as it cannot last.
Lian forecast that the CPI in 2018 might stand at 2.0 per cent on average, higher than the 1.6 per cent registered in 2017, but well below the government target of three per cent.
Consumer demand will not be strong enough to prop up a high-rising CPI, given that China has been stepping up efforts to deleverage and contain financial risks as it looks to move from high-speed to high-quality growth. The CPI figures came alongside the release of the producer price index, which rose 4.3 per cent year-on-year in January, driven by fast price rises of raw materials and minerals.
It was down from a growth of 4.9 per cent recorded in December, according to the bureau.
On a monthly basis, the index was up 0.3 per cent, down from 0.8 per cent the previous month.
For the whole of 2017, the PPI climbed 6.3 percent compared with a 1.4-per cent drop in 2016, ending declines for the previous five years. Looking ahead, Lian expects the PPI in 2018 to be around 3.5 per cent, lower than last year, driven mainly by the carryover effect. Analysts say the mild inflation leaves ample room for the government's macro policy maneuvers.
Tian Guoqiang, professor with Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that China would be able to make better use of monetary and fiscal policies to relieve the burden for the real economy. China will adopt a prudent and neutral monetary policy and a proactive fiscal policy this year, according to the central economic work conference in December.
With a low inflation level, the country can continue to deepen supply-side structural reform, raise innovation capacity and competitiveness of the economy and push forward high-quality development, Tian said.
High-quality development is the "fundamental requirement" for determining development, economic policies and macroeconomic regulation, according to policymakers.
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