Page 3 - REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT

Banks were given support to increase loans to businesses and lower interest

rates in a targeted way. MSMEs were allowed to postpone principal and interest
repayments on their loans, and inclusive finance lending by large commercial
banks to micro and small businesses increased by more than 50 percent. The real
economy thus received an infusion of 1.5 trillion yuan from financial institutions.

Point-to-point transportation services were provided to large enterprises to
help them resume operations.
Thanks to all these arduous efforts, China was able to take the lead in
reopening its economy. With gross domestic product (GDP) for the year growing

by 2.3 percent, a better-than-expected recovery was achieved. We thus not only
gained fresh experience in macro regulation, but also delivered the best possible
outcome at an acceptable cost.
2. We gave top priority to stabilizing employment and ensuring living
standards and effectively safeguarded people’s wellbeing.
Employment is pivotal to people’s wellbeing. Our efforts to keep market

entities afloat are aimed at maintaining stable employment and meeting basic
living needs. Local governments across the country provided more incentives to
stabilize and expand employment, thus enabling businesses and their employees to
work hand-in-hand to overcome their difficulties.

Multiple channels were tapped to ensure employment for key groups, and
startups and innovation were encouraged as a way to create jobs. The number of
new market entities began growing rapidly again, leading to the creation of a large
number of new jobs. A total of 11.86 million urban jobs were added, and the

year-end surveyed urban unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent.
It is truly remarkable that China, the largest developing country in the world,
has kept overall employment stable in the face of such an enormous shock.
The supply and price stability of daily necessities was ensured; the consumer

price index (CPI) posted a 2.5 percent growth. Practices like working from home,
online shopping, and contactless delivery were widely adopted.
We expanded the coverage of unemployment insurance schemes, and
extended timely assistance to those who were hit particularly hard by Covid-19.
Close to six million additional people received subsistence allowances or extreme

poverty aid, and more than eight million temporary assistance grants were
disbursed.
We fought against severe floods, typhoons, and other natural disasters and

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