An official from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) of China has responded to a journalist’s question regarding S&P Global Ratings' decision to maintain China’s sovereign credit rating and outlook.

Journalist: On August 7, S&P Global Ratings released a report, maintaining China's sovereign credit rating at "A+" with a "stable" outlook. What is the MOF's view on this?

MOF: We are pleased to see S&P's decision to maintain China's sovereign credit rating and stable outlook. The S&P report highly recognizes the resilience of China's economic growth and effective debt management, reflecting confidence in the positive prospects of the Chinese economy.

In the first half of 2025, the Chinese government proactively responded to the rapidly changing external environment, implementing a well-coordinated package of policies to ensure steady and positive progress in economic performance. Key economic indicators outperformed expectations, new quality productive forces saw active development and social security nets were further strengthened, showcasing the strong vitality and resilience of Chinese economy. In the first half of 2025, China's GDP grew by 5.3 percent, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the full-year growth of the last year. Recently, the International Monetary Fund raised its 2025 growth forecast for China to 4.8 percent, an upward revision of 0.8 percentage points from its April projection.

In the second half of the year, China will maintain the intensity of its macroeconomic policies and strengthen them when necessary. At the same time, efforts will be made to ensure policy continuity and stability, while enhancing flexibility and foresight. We will focus on stabilizing employment, businesses, the market and expectations, vigorously promote the “dual-circulation" development pattern that allows domestic and international markets to reinforce each other, and strive to achieve the annual economic and social development goals, thereby contributing to the successful conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

From a long-term perspective, China's economy has a solid foundation, multiple advantages, strong resilience and great potential, with positive factors supporting high-quality development constantly accumulating. The advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, a mega-sized market, a complete industrial system and abundant human resources all provide a solid guarantee for sustained and healthy economic development. In the future, China will continue to enhance the internal driving force of economic development, constantly study and dynamically adjust policy reserves in response to changes in the domestic and international situations, and ensure stable and positive economic growth to contribute Chinese strength to world economic development.