The State Council Information Office held a press conference today to introduce the operation of the national economy in January and February 2026. Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, stated at the meeting that the overall major economic indicators in January and February were significantly better than market institutions' expectations, fully reflecting the strong vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy. Fu Linghui stated that in the next stage, although domestic and international challenges are intertwined and there are many unstable and uncertain factors, the supporting conditions and basic trends for the long-term improvement of China's economy have not changed. With the cultivation and growth of new quality productive forces, the acceleration of the construction of a new development pattern, and the effectiveness of macroeconomic policies, the national economy is expected to continue to maintain a stable and progressive development trend, and continue to move towards new and better directions. Fu Linghui analyzed that there are four main reasons for making the above judgment: firstly, the economic operation has started strongly. In January and February of this year, China's production demand remained stable with a slight increase, and major economic indicators significantly accelerated. Positive factors accumulated and strengthened, laying a good foundation for the positive development of the economy. From January to February, the added value of industries above designated size and the total retail sales of consumer goods grew 1.3 and 1.1 percentage points faster than that in the fourth quarter of last year, respectively. The growth of goods exports accelerated significantly, and fixed assets investment also increased from a decline. Along with the improvement of the main indicators of supply and demand, and under the influence of factors such as the improvement of market supply and demand relations, prices have shown a moderate rebound. In January and February, the increase in consumer prices for residents slightly expanded, and the decrease in PPI continued to narrow, which is conducive to increasing income for enterprises and residents. Secondly, the expansion of demand has a strong driving force. Adhere to mutual benefit and win-win results, expand economic and trade exchanges with countries around the world, jointly build the "the Belt and Road" with high quality, and actively promote digital trade and green trade, which will expand new space for foreign trade development. From January to February, China's import and export growth rate to ASEAN, the EU, and the countries and regions jointly building the "the Belt and Road" remained at around 20%. In the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan, all parties will increase efforts in the construction of new infrastructure and livelihood infrastructure, strengthen project, factor, and fund guarantees, which will be conducive to driving investment growth. In January and February, the year-on-year growth rate of infrastructure investment reached 11.4%. This year's Government Work Report proposes to formulate and implement plans to increase residents' income in urban and rural areas, promote the expansion and upgrading of commodity consumption, and implement actions to improve service consumption and benefit the people, all of which are conducive to enhancing residents' consumption ability and willingness. The consumer confidence index in February increased by 1 point compared to the previous month, marking two consecutive months of recovery. Thirdly, there is strong support for industrial upgrading. The role of innovation driven leadership has been enhanced, emerging industries have grown and strengthened, and their support for production has been strengthened. In January and February, the added value of high-tech manufacturing above designated size increased by 13.1% year-on-year, and the added value of digital product manufacturing increased by 8.8%, both significantly faster than the overall industrial growth rate. The rapid expansion of new technologies such as artificial intelligence has increasingly played a role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the development of emerging industries. In January and February, the added value of railway, shipbuilding, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing industry, and electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry increased by 13.7% and 8.7% respectively. The vigorous development of green industries has injected new impetus into industrial upgrading. From January to February, the production of wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries for energy storage increased by 28.7% and 84% respectively. In recent years, the green transformation of energy has been steadily advancing, and the development results are very obvious. The development of new energy such as wind and photovoltaic has driven the growth of energy storage demand, and related products have grown significantly and rapidly. The fourth is the strong macro policy guarantee. The Central Economic Work Conference and the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have made comprehensive arrangements for this year's economic work, and fiscal policies have become more proactive. The expenditure scale will reach 30 trillion yuan for the first time. Moderately loose monetary policy, maintaining reasonable and sufficient liquidity, promoting the low operation of comprehensive social financing costs, strengthening reform measures and macroeconomic policy coordination will help enhance momentum and stimulate vitality. From the perspective of policy implementation, since the beginning of this year, the effects of the "dual" construction and "two new" work on expanding domestic demand and boosting confidence have gradually emerged. In January and February, the investment in purchasing equipment and tools with high relevance to equipment updates maintained a rapid growth rate, while the growth rate of consumer goods related to trade in saw a significant rebound compared to last year. Taking into account these factors, China's economy is expected to maintain a steady and progressive development trend in the next stage, laying a solid foundation for achieving the expected goals and tasks for the whole year. ”Fu Linghui said. (New Society)