Ministry of Finance: Fiscal Policy Will Place Greater Emphasis on Expanding Domestic Demand

On March 22, at the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Meeting in Beijing, China’s Minister of Finance, Lan Fuan, stated that entering the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, fiscal policy will closely focus on promoting high-quality development and maintain an active policy tone. In policy design and implementation, efforts will be made to expand domestic demand, invest in people, and promote openness and sharing.

“While maintaining necessary deficit levels and expenditure scales, strengthening counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, we will also continuously optimize the expenditure structure, enhance scientific fiscal management, focus on key areas and critical links to optimize fiscal resource allocation, and constantly improve policy precision and effectiveness to achieve qualitative improvements and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy,” Lan Fuan further explained regarding fiscal policy trends for the next five years.

This year, the government work report prioritized “building a strong domestic market” as the key task at the start of the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.

Lan Fuan said that fiscal policy will pay more attention to expanding domestic demand, promoting smooth domestic circulation, and enhancing endogenous development momentum. In response to the prominent contradiction of strong supply and weak demand in current economic operations, comprehensive use will be made of policy tools such as deficits, special bonds, and loan interest subsidies, strengthening coordination between fiscal and financial policies, stimulating potential consumption, and expanding effective investment to build a strong domestic market.

How will fiscal policy focus on investing in people?

Lan Fuan said that fiscal investment in people will be increased. Over the next five years, efforts will be made to do our best within capacity, continue to strengthen保障 and improve people’s livelihoods, reasonably increase the proportion of public service spending in fiscal expenditure, and raise government investment in民生, expanding development space while meeting民生 needs.

At the same time, Lan Fuan stated that targeted measures will be taken for different groups and fields, improving the pertinence of fiscal support for investing in people. Policies will be improved to combine demand-side and supply-side investments, integrate “hard investments” and “soft infrastructure,” and combine government roles with market forces.

Deepening multilateral and bilateral financial cooperation, supporting the expansion of high-level opening-up, and advancing the construction of a unified national market… Lan Fuan introduced that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, fiscal policy will pay more attention to openness and sharing, sharing “China opportunities” with countries around the world, and promoting共同发展.

“In the current context of weak global economic momentum, we will unswervingly pursue open cooperation and mutual benefit. Based on fiscal functions, we will implement proactive fiscal policies internally, strengthen international financial exchanges and cooperation externally, and inject more stability and positive energy into the world economy,” Lan Fuan said.