When deploying next year's economic work, the Central Economic Work Conference (hereinafter referred to as the "Conference") will prioritize expanding domestic demand and clarify the need to "adhere to the leading role of domestic demand and build a strong domestic market". The meeting proposed a series of measures, including expanding the supply of high-quality goods and services, optimizing the implementation of the "two new" policies, promoting the stabilization of investment, appropriately increasing the scale of investment within the central budget, and optimizing the implementation of "dual" projects. Industry experts believe that these deployments not only highlight the key position of domestic demand as the "leading" force and strategic fulcrum of economic growth, but also indicate that the policy of expanding domestic demand will pay more attention to precise implementation and quality and efficiency improvement. In terms of boosting consumption and expanding effective investment, it is expected that a batch of more targeted incremental policies will be introduced in 2026, which will continue to strengthen the role of domestic demand driving and solidly promote the construction of a strong domestic market. Strengthening the leading role of domestic demand "Adhere to the leading role of domestic demand and build a strong domestic market" - The conference put forward eight key tasks when deploying next year's economic work, with expanding domestic demand being the top priority. Regarding this, relevant officials from the Central Finance Office explained in detail the spirit of the 2025 Central Economic Work Conference, stating that China needs to maintain overall stability this year, with domestic demand contributing 71% to economic growth in the first three quarters. The policy of boosting consumption has achieved significant results, and the expansion of effective investment has been solidly promoted. The responsible comrade also pointed out that "we have noticed that the growth rate of consumption and investment has slowed down in recent months, and we need to continue to increase domestic demand." In this context, the important role of expanding domestic demand has been further strengthened. According to Luo Zhiheng, Chief Economist and Dean of the Research Institute at Yuekai Securities, the strategic position of expanding domestic demand has significantly improved in terms of positioning. The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference will focus on the task of "vigorously boosting consumption, improving investment efficiency, and expanding domestic demand in all aspects"; In 2025, there will be a clear emphasis on the "leading" role of domestic demand and the construction of a strong domestic market. This is in line with the goal of 'deepening the construction of a unified national market'. 'Adhering to domestic demand leadership' is not only a key task in economic work, but also the fundamental basis for maintaining strategic initiative and enhancing economic resilience in a complex international environment through building a strong domestic market. ”Luo Zhiheng said. Yuan Haixia, President of the China Chengxin International Research Institute, further analyzed that compared to last year's proposal of "vigorously boosting consumption and increasing investment returns", this conference has a higher position, integrating consumption and investment into domestic demand, and emphasizing the role of domestic demand in driving the macro economy. Efforts will be made on both sides of supply and demand to boost consumption. "Expanding the supply of high-quality goods and services" has become the focus of boosting consumption next year, which is in line with the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's proposal to "lead new supply with new demand and create new demand with new supply". Yuan Haixia analyzed that the contradiction between insufficient effective demand and inadequate supply adaptability still exists. There is still a supply gap in high-quality products and services, as well as in areas such as "one old, one small", especially in areas such as housing, transportation and communication, culture and entertainment. The lack of specialized and personalized supply is particularly significant, and the demand for improvement has not been fully met. This requires efforts in optimizing the supply structure, improving supply quality, innovating consumption scenarios, and other aspects. The reporter noticed that relevant measures have been scheduled. At the "2025-2026 China Economic Annual Conference" held after the Central Economic Work Conference, Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director in charge of daily work of the Central Finance Office and Director of the Central Agriculture Office, stated that it is necessary to adapt to changes in the consumption structure, expand the supply of high-quality goods and services, optimize the implementation of the "two new" policies, give local governments more autonomy, clean up unreasonable restrictive measures in the consumption field, and unleash the potential of service consumption. There is still a lot of room for growth in inbound consumption in our country, and we need to optimize the inbound consumption environment and create the "Buy in China" brand. Xiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary General of the National Development and Reform Commission, also stated at the "2025-2026 China Economic Annual Conference" that it is necessary to comprehensively expand domestic demand, deeply implement special actions to boost consumption, accelerate the relaxation of service consumption restrictions, accelerate the introduction and implementation of policies to boost consumption in areas such as the first launch economy, sports economy, e-commerce, and "artificial intelligence+consumption", and vigorously develop the silver haired economy and ice and snow economy. It is worth noting that the meeting also explicitly stated the development and implementation of plans to increase the income of urban and rural residents. Guo Lei, Chief Economist of Guangfa Securities, stated that the previous "15th Five Year Plan" proposed the policy direction of "implementing the plan to increase the income of urban and rural residents and effectively increasing the income of low-income groups". The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out the need to "formulate and implement plans to increase the income of urban and rural residents", which means that the start-up phase will begin next year, demonstrating that "promoting consumption with income" is one of the key policy ideas during the "15th Five Year Plan" period. Multiple measures will be taken to promote the stabilization of investment. In terms of investment, the Central Economic Work Conference has clearly stated the need to "promote the stabilization of investment" and proposed to "appropriately increase the scale of investment within the central budget" and "continue to play the role of new policy financial instruments". Luo Zhiheng said that since the third quarter of 2025, the growth rate of fixed assets investment has continued to decline. Compared to the Central Economic Work Conference's proposal of "improving investment efficiency" in 2024, the clear goal of "promoting investment to stop falling and stabilize" in 2025 reflects the central government's accurate assessment of the current investment situation. The relevant person in charge of the Central Finance Office stated that there is currently a decline in investment, but China still has many shortcomings and weaknesses in scientific and technological innovation, industrial upgrading, infrastructure, and improving people's livelihoods. We need to combine investment in goods with investment in people, coordinate efforts to boost consumption and expand investment, accelerate the construction of consumer infrastructure such as parking lots, charging stations, and tourist roads, increase the proportion of investment in people's livelihoods such as elderly care, childcare, and medical care, promote high-quality urban renewal, and focus on expanding effective investment. Expand effective investment, where does the money come from? The meeting proposed to appropriately increase the scale of investment within the central budget, optimize the implementation of "dual" projects, optimize the management of the use of local government special bonds, continue to play the role of new policy based financial instruments, and effectively stimulate the vitality of private investment. "In recent years, the central investment in power, water conservancy and other fields has strongly supported the growth of fixed assets investment. Under the background of increasing downward pressure on investment, the central investment needs to further play a key supporting role to drive the whole society to stabilize and recover investment. ”Luo Zhiheng said that the meeting emphasized the optimization of the management of the use of local government special bonds. By optimizing the scope and management of the use of special bonds, it is possible to reduce idle funds, improve the efficiency of fund utilization, provide sufficient financial support for major local project construction, and enhance the investment capacity of local governments. In the view of Zhang Ming, Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the 500 billion yuan new policy based financial instruments launched in the second half of 2025 should have a significant promoting effect on infrastructure investment by the end of this year and the beginning of next year. The meeting proposed to "continue to play the role of new policy based financial instruments", which means that there will be at least equal or even higher scale policy based financial instrument investment by 2026, which will be very helpful in alleviating local government pressure and promoting infrastructure investment. (New Society)