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MK sport 2025, in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, Ubtech humanoid robots undergo multi-scenario, multi-task training at Zeekr's 5G-wired electric car factory, showcasing advanced industrial automation. Photo: VCG" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-03-27/c98047d0-0e44-4f16-a3cd-c85c525c83ee.jpg" />

On March 1, 2025, in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, Ubtech humanoid robots undergo multi-scenario, multi-task training at Zeekr's 5G-wired electric car factory, showcasing advanced industrial automation. Photo: VCG

China's economy continues to gain momentum since the beginning of 2025. There are significant structural advancement in technology innovations, reflected by a flurry of new breakthroughs, such as DeepSeek in large language AI models, advanced robotics by Unitree, and BYD's across-the-board autopilot coverage in electric cars.

These breakthroughs dramatically change the consensus on China's technology development prospects, which are deemed to be some of the major drivers for China's sustainable growth.

Looking ahead, we believe China will remain on the path of sustained recovery. Domestic demand and technological innovation are expected to be the main drivers, as indicated by a series of government announcements lately.

China has unveiled a comprehensive policy package recently to boost consumer spending, reinforcing its commitment to making consumption a key driver of economic growth. Central to the plan is an unprecedented emphasis on demand-side support to bolster household consumption capacity through measures that will help foster reasonable wage increases, explore new property income channels, and raise farmers' incomes.

Since the fourth quarter of 2024, the real estate market has seen dots of encouraging recovery, which should help boost domestic demand in the medium and long term. We expect a potential acceleration in consumption recovery due to the rebound in the equities market and stabilization of housing prices.

As China embarks on its journey from a middle-income society to become a high-income economy, the country's economic landscape is undergoing marked transformation. A crucial aspect of this transition is technological advancement, which enhances industrial added value and boosts labor productivity. These improvements play a vital role in boosting consumption growth.

Tech innovation can greatly improve the efficiency of manufacturers, retailers, and service providers. Once the numerical growth rate is no longer the sole target we pursue, these efficiency improvements are expected to have a significant impact. Innovations will open up lots of new market opportunities.

Many Chinese manufacturers remain highly competitive in a tariff-affected global context, particularly in sectors such as automobiles, solar energy, electronics, and robotics. We can observe an uptrend in consumer demand for Chinese products in the global markets lately.

In addition, Chinese culture will help create new narratives as more Chinese products and services gain global recognition. The narratives will also promote Chinese products to global consumers effectively. Manufacturers focus more on the domestic market and geopolitically aligned regions, which would help mitigate the impact of tariffs to some extent.

To sum up, we anticipate a recovery in China's economy in 2025. The economy kicked off in 2025 on a solid rebounding trajectory, offering compelling evidence of the efficacy of its well-calibrated stimulus measures and the enduring strength of the world's second-largest economy.

Although the path ahead is not without challenges, such as deflationary pressures and higher tariffs, which may continue to present risks, supportive government policies are paving the way for positive development. A historical analysis of domestic demand shows that effective stimulation relies on a balance of demand-side and supply-side stimulus measures. Furthermore, structural reforms enhance the effectiveness of these policies, as demonstrated by the successes in 1992 and 1998.

I remain fully confident in investing in China. With the continuous adjustment and upgrading of its economic structure, emerging high-tech industries have been new growth drivers for economic growth. Also, China's stock market remains attractively valued on a global scale, and I look forward to Chinese stocks gradually regaining their rightful place in global investment portfolios, playing an increasingly important role among international capital markets.

The author is deputy general manager at Schroders Fund Management. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn