Commenting on China’s high-level national service industry conference, SMU Associate Professor of Finance Fu Fangjian said China must expand domestic demand to sustain around 5% annual growth. He noted that while goods trade has long run a surplus with limited room for further expansion, services trade remains in significant deficit—reaching RMB 828.72 billion (S$153.76 billion) last year. Developing high-quality domestic services could narrow this gap and serve as a new growth engine. He added that further policy measures are likely to support a shift from traditional infrastructure investment to the more efficient services sector.
