Central Economic Work Conference Sets Tone for Next Year: Key Fiscal, Monetary Policies & 8 Tasks

[SMM Domestic Economic Conference Update] The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing, setting the tone for next year's economic work. The meeting emphasized the need to continue implementing a more proactive fiscal policy, maintaining necessary levels of fiscal deficit, total debt, and overall expenditure, with particular attention to addressing the difficulties faced by local finances. Meanwhile, on the monetary policy side, it is essential to maintain a moderately loose stance, flexibly and efficiently utilizing various policy tools such as RRR cuts and interest rate cuts.

The meeting outlined eight key tasks: first, optimizing the implementation of the program of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, clearing unreasonable restrictions in the consumption sector; second, promoting investment to stabilize and recover, appropriately expanding the scale of central budgeted investments; third, adhering to innovation-driven development, deepening and broadening areas related to "artificial intelligence "; fourth, intensifying efforts to rectify involutionary competition phenomena; fifth, accelerating the pace of building a new-type energy system, and expanding the application scope of green power.