Six, mild rise in CPI; greater rise in PPI.

In August, the consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.8 percent year on year, 0.4 percentage point higher than in July. The breakdown is as follows: 0.4 percent for food, tobacco and alcohol, 1.3 percent for garments, 2.7 percent for housing, 1.3 percent for daily-use goods and services, 0.7 percent for transportation and communications, 2.5 percent for education, culture and entertainment, 5.9 percent for healthcare and 1.4 percent for other goods and services. Within the “food, tobacco and alcohol” category, the prices of grain and fresh vegetables rose by 1.6 percent and 9.7 percent respectively, and the price of pork dropped by 13.4 percent. The month-on-month rise for CPI was 0.4 percent. For January-August, CPI rose 1.5 percent year on year.

In August, the producer price index (PPI) rose 6.3 percent year on year, 0.8 percentage point higher than the growth in July, and rose 0.9 percent month on month. The rise for January to August was 6.4 percent year on year. In August, the producer purchasing price index jumped 7.7 percent year on year and 0.8 percent month on month. For January-August, the jump was 8.4 percent year on year.

Seven, rapid growth in imports and exports; higher proportion of general trade in imports and exports; higher proportion of mechanical and electrical products in exports.

In August, foreign trade increased 10.1 percent year on year to 2.41 trillion yuan, of which 1.35 trillion yuan was exports, up 6.9 percent, and 1.06 trillion yuan was imports, up 14.4 percent, resulting in a trade surplus of 286.5 billion yuan. For January to August, foreign trade increased 17.1 percent year on year to 17.83 trillion yuan, of which exports were 9.85 trillion yuan, up 13 percent, and imports were 7.98 trillion yuan, up 22.5 percent. In January to August, general trade expanded by 17.9 percent year on year, increasing its share in China’s total foreign trade by 0.4 percentage point from last year to 56.7 percent. Exports of mechanical and electrical products expanded 13.4 percent, increasing its share in China’s total exports by 0.3 percentage point from last year to 57.1 percent.

In August, industrial enterprises above the designated size (those with an annual revenue from their main business operations of 20 million yuan or more) delivered exports worth 1.09 trillion yuan, up 8.2 percent year on year. For January to August, the figure was 8.27 trillion yuan, up 10.3 percent over last year.

Eight, progress in the supply-side structural reform; extraordinary results in transformation and upgrading.

New progress has been made in cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and strengthening areas of weakness. By the end of July, overcapacity cutting in iron and steel industry had progressed smoothly with sales and production of substandard steel products banned; overcapacity cutting in coal resulted in a combined capacity of 128 million tons, or 85 percent of the annual target, eliminated. The area of commodity housing for sale at the end of August declined 12 percent year on year, 1 percentage point higher than a month earlier.

The debt-to-asset ratio and production cost of industrial enterprises continued to fall. At the end of July, the ratio was 55.8 percent for industrial enterprises above the designated size, down by 0.7 percentage point compared with the same period last year. The cost for each 100 yuan earned from main business operations was 85.72 yuan for January to July, 0.04 yuan less than the corresponding period last year. Investment in areas of weakness grew rapidly. In January to August, investment in environmental protection, public facility management, road transportation, water conservancy management and agriculture grew 28.2, 24.3, 24.1, 17.6 and 16.1 percent respectively.

New achievement was scored in adjusting the industrial structure and expanding new growth drivers. Technology-intensive and low-resource-consuming new industries and products that are in keeping with the trend of transformation and upgrading grew rapidly. In August, the high-tech industry and equipment manufacturing industry expanded 12.9 percent and 11.6 percent year on year in terms of value added. The expansions were 0.8 and 0.9 percentage point higher respectively than in July and 6.9 and 5.6 percentage points higher than those by industrial enterprises above the designated size.

In January to August, output of industrial robots, new-energy cars and SUVs increased by 63, 25.4 and 17.2 percent year on year respectively. Emerging services and producer services also recorded rapid growth. In January-July, enterprises above the designated size offering emerging services of strategic importance and producer services earned 16.8 and 14.5 percent more in business revenue compared with the same period last year.

On the whole, the national economy continued to make progress and move in a positive direction while remaining stable in August. Growth was steady with structure and quality improved. But we should also be aware that there are still concerns and challenges, because the international environment continues to suffer from numerous instabilities and uncertainties, and the Chinese economy is still clearing away barriers for restructuring. Going forward, we will rally even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, make progress while maintaining stable performance, and use new development concepts to steer the new normal in economic development.

We will continue to focus on the supply-side structural reform, moderately expand aggregate demand, make innovation a greater growth driver, better guide expectations, seek impetus and vitality through reform and pursue development and transformation through innovation. We will strive to upgrade the economy, making it more efficient, and boost the real economy, keeping risks at bay, so as to consolidate and stabilize the foundation for development.

That’s all for my introduction. Now I’m ready to take your questions. Thank you.

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