In April, the national economy withstood pressure and grew steadily. On May 19th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the operation of the national economy in April 2025. Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the Comprehensive Statistics Department of the National Economy, stated that the international environment in April became more complex and severe, external shocks increased, and the difficulty of stable economic operation increased. Faced with the rapidly changing and complex situation, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, all regions and departments conscientiously implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, accelerate the implementation of more proactive macro policies, strengthen the domestic circulation, effectively respond to external shocks, maintain stable economic growth under pressure, and continue to move towards a new positive trend. Regarding the key data in the April "Economic Report Card", China Net Finance reporters interviewed multiple experts for interpretation. Since the beginning of this year, the international environment has been complex and severe, external challenges have increased, and there are still some bottlenecks in the domestic economic cycle to support consumption through the expansion of the "trade in" policy. Vigorously boosting consumption is conducive to effectively responding to external challenges, smoothing the domestic circulation, promoting economic growth, improving people's livelihoods, and enhancing development vitality. In April, the policy effects continued to show, the consumer market grew steadily, and new consumption drivers developed and grew. ”Fu Linghui said at the press conference. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in April, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3717.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%; A month on month increase of 0.24%. By consumption type, the retail sales of goods reached 3.3007 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.1%; The catering revenue was 416.7 billion yuan, an increase of 5.2%. Consumption remained generally stable in April, partly due to the support of the trade in policy and partly due to the stable employment situation. ”Wen Bin, Chief Economist of Minsheng Bank, analyzed that. Wang Qing, Chief Macro Analyst of Dongfang Jincheng, also pointed out that the policy of exchanging old for new durable consumer goods continues to play a positive role in supporting residents' commodity consumption. Data shows that in April, the growth rate of retail sales of household appliances, communication equipment, furniture, and cultural office supplies by units above designated size continued to rise by double digits, with year-on-year increases of 38.8%, 19.9%, 26.9%, and 33.5%, respectively. In the view of Zhang Di, Chief Macro Analyst at China Galaxy Securities, consumer confidence is stabilizing and coupled with last year's lower base, consumption may enter a "new normal" within the year. During the May Day holiday, the total number of cross regional personnel movements in the whole society reached 1.467 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.0%. The sales of key retail and catering enterprises in China increased by 6.3% year-on-year. Per capita consumption expenditure remains stable, and the hot holiday travel and consumption expenditure remain stable, indicating that consumer behavior has entered a 'new normal', with more emphasis on experiential service consumption such as tourism and entertainment, while spending is also more rational. ”Zhang Di said. Overall, despite the sudden increase in external economic and trade pressure, residents' consumption in April still showed strong resilience under the support of consumption promotion policies. In response to the demand for "export to domestic sales", Wang Qing expects that the efforts to promote consumption policies will be further intensified in the future, and the zero growth rate of society in May is expected to maintain a relatively fast growth level of around 5.0%. However, Wang Qing also pointed out that the uncertainty of tariff policies cannot be ignored in its impact on residents' consumption confidence. The consumer confidence index in March ended the continuous improvement trend of the previous three months. In this regard, Wang Qing believes that in addition to providing consumer subsidies represented by the old for new policy, the key to promoting consumption is still to quickly promote the recovery of the real estate market, which will help hedge the impact of external environmental changes on market confidence and boost residents' consumption confidence. The "Three Strikes" drive industrial added value, and industrial production is an important support for stable economic growth. ”At the press conference, Fu Linghui introduced that since the beginning of this year, with the continuous effectiveness of existing policies and the effective implementation of incremental policies, the effect of policy "combination punches" has been constantly emerging. Industrial production maintains rapid growth, and industrial development is transitioning towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, providing strong support for high-quality economic development. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in April, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in China increased by 6.1% year-on-year, continuing the trend of rapid growth; After excluding seasonal factors, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 0.22% month on month. From the three major categories, the manufacturing industry grew by 6.6%, 0.5 percentage points higher than all industries above designated size, the mining industry grew by 5.7%, and the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas, and water grew by 2.1%. Although there has been a slight decline, it still maintains a high growth rate. Among them, the equipment manufacturing industry and high-tech manufacturing industry have grown rapidly. ”Zhang Di said. Zhang Di believes that there are three factors supporting the strong growth of industrial added value from January to April: first, China's exports still maintain a high level of resilience. In April, China's exports grew at a year-on-year rate of 8.1%, with exports to Vietnam growing at a rate of 22.5%. China's high growth in transit trade with non US countries partially offset the decline in exports to the US. The second is the policy effect of enterprises competing for the "two new". According to the April social zero data, the policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods continues to be effective, and the demand for durable consumer goods is still relatively strong driven by the policy effect. The growth rate of electrical machinery increased by 0.4 percentage points from the previous month to 13.4%. The third is to compete for "AI". With the emergence of Deepseek, domestic artificial intelligence and technology have entered a new stage of development, and the capital expenditure of the AI related industry chain is huge. In April, the driving force of "artificial intelligence+" was strengthened, and the digital industry flourished. The added value of China's large-scale digital product manufacturing industry increased by 10% year-on-year. Wang Qing believes that the policy of expanding domestic demand in April, coupled with the accelerated integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, has led to a positive development of high-tech industries and provided support for the overall performance of industrial production. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the added value of high-tech manufacturing above designated size, which represents the development of new quality productivity, increased by 10% year-on-year in April. The growth rate only slightly decreased by 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous month, faster than all industries above designated size by 3.9 percentage points. The added value of intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing increased by 74.2% in the same month, and the output of 3D printing equipment, industrial robots, and new energy vehicle products increased by 60.7%, 51.5%, and 38.9% year-on-year, respectively. Looking ahead, with the significant increase in external economic and trade fluctuations in recent times, Wang Qing expects that the export growth rate in May may further decline, which will further drag down industrial production. However, the policy of vigorously boosting domestic demand will play a hedging role to a large extent, and it is estimated that the industrial production growth rate in May will further drop to around 5.3%. Overall, Wang Qing believes that there may be a sustained slowdown in the growth rate of industrial production in the future. The annual growth rate of industrial production will be lower than the GDP growth rate, and the economic growth momentum will once again shift towards the service industry. Multiple factors jointly promote employment stability, which is closely related to thousands of households. ”At the press conference, Fu Linghui introduced that since the beginning of this year, China's economy has maintained steady growth, industrial development has improved, new driving forces have grown and strengthened, and policies supporting employment and entrepreneurship of key groups have been implemented vigorously. These factors have jointly promoted overall employment stability. Fu Linghui introduced that from the perspective of changes in unemployment rate, due to the influence of the Spring Festival, the national urban survey unemployment rate increased in January and February. However, with the increase in enterprise production and operation activities after the Spring Festival, the number of migrant workers going out for work continued to increase, and the activity of the labor market increased. In March and April, the national urban survey unemployment rate continued to decline. Overall, the surveyed urban unemployment rate in China has remained stable with a slight decrease. In April, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 5.1%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, and has been declining for two consecutive months. From the perspective of key groups, the surveyed unemployment rate of migrant workers and young people has decreased. In April, the unemployment rate of migrant agricultural registered residence labor force in cities and towns was 4.7%, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month; The urban survey unemployment rate for labor force aged 16-24, excluding current students, has also been declining for two consecutive months. Fu Linghui also mentioned that the structural contradictions in employment are still quite prominent. On the one hand, the employment pressure on the youth group is relatively high, and on the other hand, there are difficulties in recruiting workers in some industries, especially for frontline technical workers who are in short supply. The mismatch between supply and demand of human resources remains prominent. At the same time, the complex changes in the external environment have brought certain pressure to China's labor market. Fu Linghui stated that in the next stage, against the backdrop of complex changes in the external environment and many uncertain factors, we must firmly handle our own affairs, thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, make greater efforts to stabilize and expand employment, promote full employment, improve employment quality, and continuously guarantee and improve people's livelihoods. (New Society)