Digital finance

THE central bank said Friday it would accelerate digital financial transformation in order to help build a modern financial system that could adapt to the development of the digital economy.

The bank will also strengthen financial technology supervision to fend off risks, it said in a statement.

GDP of Guangzhou

THE GDP of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, grew 2.7 percent year on year to exceed 2.5 trillion yuan (US$388.25 billion) in 2020, local authorities said Friday.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), Guangzhou’s GDP increased from nearly 1.86 trillion yuan to over 2.5 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 6 percent, said Feng Jun, vice head of the Guangzhou statistics bureau.

Home appliances

THE country’s home appliance sector posted a rising output last year, latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows.

In 2020, the output of refrigerators and washing machines totaled 90.15 million and 80.42 million sets, respectively, up 8.4 percent and 3.9 percent from 2019. China’s air conditioner makers saw their output fall 8.3 percent year on year to 210.6 million sets in 2020, the ministry said.

Private consumption

CHINA is expected to see the size of its private consumption more than doubled in the next decade, with the share of services slated to outgrow goods, according to a research report from Morgan Stanley.

The country’s private consumption is likely to reach US$12.7 trillion by 2030, making China a global consumption powerhouse and matching the size of the current U.S. market, the investment bank forecasted.