Guide Financial Institutions to Intensify Support for Expanding Domestic Demand

Expanding domestic demand is the strategic foundation for building a new pattern of development. The 2025 Central Economic Work Conference designated “adhering to domestic demand as the leading force and building a strong domestic market” as a key task for the opening year of the “15th Five-Year Plan” [1]1 The “15th Five-Year Plan” refers to China’s national economic and social development plan for the period 2026–2030., and emphasized “guiding financial institutions to intensify support for key areas such as expanding domestic demand, technological innovation, and small and medium-sized enterprises.” Supporting the boosting of consumption and the expansion of domestic demand is an important part of finance serving the real economy. As the core of the modern economy, finance plays an increasingly prominent role in supporting, leveraging, and guiding various fields of economic and social development; the depth, breadth, and precision of its functioning directly affect the effectiveness of expanding domestic demand. To do a good job in this year’s economic work, it is necessary to fully leverage the role of finance, especially to effectively enhance the adaptability and sustainability of financial services for expanding domestic demand.

扩大内需是构建新发展格局的战略基点。2025年中央经济工作会议将“坚持内需主导，建设强大国内市场”作为“十五五”规划开局之年的重点任务，并强调“引导金融机构加力支持扩大内需、科技创新、中小微企业等重点领域”。支持提振消费、扩大内需，是金融服务实体经济的重要内容。作为现代经济的核心，金融对经济社会发展各领域的支撑作用、杠杆作用、牵引作用日益凸显，其功能发挥的深度、广度和精度直接影响着扩大内需的成效。做好今年经济工作，需充分发挥金融作用，特别是要切实提高金融服务扩大内需的适配性和可持续性。

The key lies in optimizing structure, strengthening transmission, and promoting circulation

关键是优结构强传导促循环

Finance is the lifeblood of the national economy. Aggregate financial indicators both reflect the state of macroeconomic operation and demonstrate the intensity of financial support for the real economy. In recent years, China’s financial system has played a key role in stabilizing growth, but as the economy shifts from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, a natural decline in the growth rate of financial aggregates has become inevitable. As the Monetary Policy Report of the People’s Bank of China for the third quarter of 2025 points out, “a decline in the growth rate of future financial aggregates is natural and consistent with China’s economy transitioning from high-speed growth to high-quality development.” This objectively requires that financial support for expanding domestic demand shift from scale-driven to quality- and efficiency-driven, no longer one-sidedly pursuing expansion in the scale of social financing and credit, but instead paying more attention to the precision of capital allocation, the directness of policy transmission, and the sustainability of financial services for the real economy.

金融是国民经济的血脉。金融总量指标既反映宏观经济运行的状态，也体现金融支持实体经济的力度。近年来，我国金融体系在稳增长中发挥了关键作用，但随着经济从高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段，金融总量增速的自然回落已成为必然。正如中国人民银行发布的2025年第三季度中国货币政策执行报告指出，“未来金融总量增速有所下降是自然的，与我国经济从高速增长转向高质量发展是一致的”。这在客观上要求金融支持扩大内需要从规模驱动转向质效驱动，不再片面追求社会融资以及信贷在规模上的扩张，而是更加注重资金投向的精准性、政策传导的直达性以及金融服务实体经济的可持续性。

This shift has very important practical significance. On the one hand, the external environment is complex and severe, trade protectionism is intensifying, and the world economic recovery is weak; on the other hand, domestic expansion of domestic demand still faces blockages: the household savings rate remains high, residents’ consumption propensity is low, and the matching degree between the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and medium- and long-term credit supply is not high. In response, relying solely on aggregate easing is insufficient to stimulate the vitality of micro-entities. It is necessary to optimize structure (e.g., increasing the proportion of inclusive small and micro loans), strengthen transmission (e.g., smoothing the interest rate transmission mechanism from short-term to long-term), and promote circulation (e.g., facilitating efficient circulation of funds between the financial system and the real economy), so that finance truly becomes a strategic fulcrum and important safeguard for expanding domestic demand.

这一转向具有十分重要的现实意义。一方面，外部环境复杂严峻，贸易保护主义加剧，世界经济复苏乏力；另一方面，国内扩大内需仍存堵点，居民储蓄率处于高位，居民消费倾向偏低，中小企业融资需求和中长期信贷供给的匹配度不高。对此，仅靠总量宽松难以激发微观主体活力，必须通过优化结构（如提升普惠小微贷款投放占比）、强化传导（如理顺由短及长的利率传导机制）、促进循环（如促进资金在金融体系与实体经济间的高效循环），使金融真正成为扩大内需的战略支点和重要保障。

At a deeper level, this shift reflects the inherent requirements of high-quality development. When the main engine driving economic growth shifts from expanding the scale of factor inputs to improving total factor productivity, financial support must shift from “ensuring aggregate volume” to “improving efficiency.” Optimizing structure helps improve the quality of resource allocation, requiring guidance of funds to key areas and weak links such as advanced manufacturing, green and low-carbon development, inclusive small and micro enterprises, technological innovation, and rural revitalization, avoiding misallocation of resources to low-quality, low-efficiency areas; strengthening transmission helps improve the effectiveness of policy implementation, requiring optimization of policy-based financial instruments, strengthening assessment and incentives, and improving the due diligence exemption mechanism to reduce the comprehensive financing costs of the real economy; promoting circulation helps enhance the sustainability of development, requiring unblocking the blockages and sticking points that hinder the positive interaction between consumption and investment, both by enhancing residents’ consumption capacity and willingness through implementing plans to increase urban and rural residents’ income, optimizing the implementation of the “two new” policies [2]2 The “two new” policies refer to large-scale equipment upgrades and the replacement of old consumer goods with new ones, a key initiative to boost domestic demand., and expanding the supply of service consumption, and by improving investment efficiency through stabilizing infrastructure investment, supporting private investment, and revitalizing existing assets, thereby consolidating the foundation for the dynamic balance of consumption, investment, employment, and income. It can be said that optimizing structure is the prerequisite for improving the efficiency of fund utilization, strengthening transmission is the key to unblocking the “last kilometer” of policy implementation, and promoting circulation is an important condition for expanding domestic demand. Only through coordinated efforts can finance truly become an “accelerator” for expanding domestic demand.

更深层次看，这一转向体现高质量发展的内在要求。当拉动经济增长的主引擎从要素投入规模扩大转向全要素生产率提升，金融支持就必须从“保总量”转向“提效率”。优化结构有助于提升资源配置质量，需将资金引导至先进制造、绿色低碳、普惠小微、科技创新、乡村振兴等重点领域和薄弱环节，避免资源错配到低质低效领域；强化传导有助于提高政策落地效能，需通过优化政策性金融工具、强化考核激励、完善尽职免责机制，降低实体经济综合融资成本；促进循环有助于增强发展的可持续性，需打通阻碍消费与投资良性互动的堵点卡点，既通过实施城乡居民增收计划、优化“两新”政策实施、扩大服务消费供给等增强居民消费能力和意愿，又通过稳定基础设施投资、支持民间投资、盘活存量资产提升投资效率，夯实消费、投资、就业、收入动态平衡的基础。可以说，优化结构是提升资金使用效能的前提，强化传导是打通政策落地“最后一公里”的关键，促进循环是扩大内需的重要条件。唯有协同发力，才能使金融真正成为扩大内需的“加速器”。

Structural issues warrant attention

结构性问题值得关注

Currently, there is still a “temperature difference” between macro data and micro-level perceptions. An in-depth analysis reveals that there are still some structural problems in financial support for expanding domestic demand that urgently need systematic resolution.

当前，宏观数据与微观感受之间还存在“温差”。深入剖析可见，金融支持扩大内需还存在一些结构性问题，亟待系统性破解。

For residents, the financial support mechanism to promote the ability, willingness, and confidence to consume is not yet well-established. Consumption is final demand. At present, household loans show structural differentiation: medium- and long-term loans remain stable, but residents’ demand for short-term consumer loans has grown rapidly, and some banks find it difficult to meet this demand. Some middle- and low-income groups and flexibly employed individuals face practical constraints such as flawed credit records, lack of effective collateral, and weak income stability and continuity, which traditional credit models also struggle to cover. At the same time, consumer financial products are relatively homogeneous, with insufficient depth of scenario integration, and there is a lack of credit financial tools and differentiated risk pricing mechanisms that match consumption upgrading areas such as education, elderly care, health, and cultural tourism.

对居民而言，促进能消费、敢消费、愿消费的金融支持机制尚不健全。消费是最终需求。目前，住户贷款呈现结构性分化，中长期贷款保持稳健，但居民对短期消费贷的需求增长迅猛，部分银行尚难以满足。部分中低收入群体、灵活就业人员等还面临征信记录有瑕疵、缺乏有效抵押物、收入稳定性和连续性不强等现实约束，传统信贷模型对此亦难以覆盖。同时，消费金融产品同质化较为严重，场景嵌入层次不足，与教育、养老、健康、文旅等消费升级领域相匹配的信贷金融工具和差异化风险定价机制不足。

For enterprises, there remains a gap in the supply of medium- and long-term funds to promote the willingness, ability, and effectiveness of investment. Expanding domestic demand cannot be achieved without the driving force of effective investment. In the first 11 months of 2025, RMB loans increased by 15.36 trillion yuan, of which medium- and long-term loans to enterprises (and institutions) increased by 8.49 trillion yuan, with strong financing demand in areas such as manufacturing technological transformation, green energy, and the digital economy. However, surveys have found that a large number of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and specialized and new “little giant” enterprises [3]3 “Specialized and new ‘little giant’ enterprises” are a category of small and medium-sized enterprises in China that specialize in niche markets, possess advanced technology, and are recognized for their innovation and competitiveness. still face difficulties with financing maturity mismatch. Banks prefer to provide short-term working capital loans, but equipment upgrades and intelligent transformation of production lines often require longer-term capital matching. This structural maturity mismatch pushes up the comprehensive financing costs of enterprises and leads to short-termism in investment decisions. This creates a gap in the supply of medium- and long-term funds between enterprises’ willingness to invest, their ability to invest, and the effectiveness of their investments.

对企业而言，促进想投资、能投资、投得好的中长期资金供给仍存缺口。扩大内需离不开有效投资的带动。2025年前11个月，人民币贷款增加15.36万亿元，其中企（事）业单位中长期贷款增加8.49万亿元，制造业技术改造、绿色能源、数字经济等领域融资需求旺盛。但调研发现，大量中小制造企业、专精特新“小巨人”企业依然面临融资期限错配的困难。银行偏好于提供短期流动资金贷款，但设备更新、产线智能化改造等往往需要更长周期的资金匹配。这一结构性期限错配推高了企业综合融资成本，并导致投资决策短期化。这造成企业“想投”的意愿、“能投”的能力与“投得好”的效能之间，存在中长期资金供给缺口。

For financial institutions, the motivation and ability to be willing to lend, capable of risk control, and adept at serving need improvement. Currently, commercial banks generally face the dual challenges of narrowing net interest margins and increasing pressure from the generation of non-performing assets. In the fourth quarter of 2025, multiple banks intensively listed and transferred non-performing loans such as credit card overdrafts and personal consumer loans on the Banking Credit Asset Registration and Transfer Center, reflecting pressure on the quality management of retail credit assets. Although financial support for key consumption areas has been continuously strengthened in recent years, it still takes time for foundational work such as adjusting risk perceptions, improving data governance capabilities, and building intelligent risk control models to achieve results. Under current conditions, the risk control costs for financial institutions serving long-tail customer groups related to consumer credit, small and micro loans, and technology innovation loans are significantly higher than those for standardized businesses.

对金融机构而言，愿放贷、能风控、善服务的动力和能力有待提升。当前，商业银行普遍面临净息差收窄、不良资产生成压力上升的双重挑战。2025年第四季度，多家银行密集在银行业信贷资产登记流转中心挂牌转让信用卡透支、个人消费贷款等类型不良贷款，反映出零售信贷资产质量管理承压的情况。虽然近几年持续加大对消费重点领域的金融支持力度，但风险认知调整、数据治理能力提升、智能风控模型建设等基础性工作取得成效仍需要时间。在目前条件下，金融机构对消费信贷、小微贷款、科创贷款相关长尾客群服务的风控成本显著高于标准化业务。

Systemic efforts to improve quality and efficiency

系统性发力提升质效

Solving the above difficulties clearly cannot rely solely on piecemeal local adjustments. Instead, it requires promoting systemic reforms oriented towards improving the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy, safeguarded by risk-sharing mechanisms, and focused on enhancing the matching capacity of medium- and long-term investment and financing. This involves shifting financial resources from short-term liquidity supply to medium- and long-term support for manufacturing technological transformation, cultivation of strategic emerging industries, and innovation in consumption scenarios, and from standardized credit supply to precise and differentiated support.

破解上述难题，显然不能仅靠零敲碎打的局部调整，而是需要推动以提升服务实体经济质效为导向、以风险共担机制为保障、以增强中长期投融资匹配能力为重点任务的系统性改革，推动金融资源从短期流动性供给转向对制造业技术改造、战略性新兴产业培育和消费场景创新的中长期支持，从标准化信贷投放转向精准化、差异化支持。

Strengthen coordination, and promote the concerted effort of fiscal policy and monetary policy. The coordination of fiscal policy and monetary policy is an important prerequisite for enhancing the effectiveness of financial support for expanding domestic demand. In 2025, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank raised their forecasts for China’s economic growth rate to around 5%, and a series of macroeconomic policy measures adopted by China are key to this upward revision. In the next stage, policy coordination should be further strengthened. On the one hand, expand the targeted support function within the existing relending framework. Explore the creation of special relending instruments for the consumption sector, or set aside a dedicated consumption credit support quota within existing structural tools, to provide targeted support for financial institutions in issuing automobile loans, home renovation loans, and county-level commercial circulation loans. On the other hand, promote the downward extension of fiscal interest subsidies and risk compensation funds. Consider supporting qualified regions, within the fiscal affordability range and relying on the local government financing guarantee system, to establish a consumption credit risk-sharing mechanism tailored to local conditions, providing tiered compensation to commercial banks for credit consumption loans based on actual losses, and linking this with the credit information system to avoid moral hazard, effectively eliminating banks’ concerns about “daring not to lend.” In addition, it is necessary to optimize the “baton” of regulatory assessment. Consider incorporating the growth rate of inclusive consumption loans and the availability of credit in counties and rural areas as important reference indicators for evaluating the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy, and include them in the assessment system for inclusive financial service effectiveness.

强化协同，推动财政政策与货币政策协同发力。财政政策与货币政策协同，是提升金融支持扩大内需效能的重要前提。2025年，国际货币基金组织和世界银行上调对中国经济增速预期至5%左右，我国采取的一系列宏观政策举措是上调预期的关键。下一阶段，应进一步强化政策协同。一方面，在现行再贷款框架下拓展定向支持功能。探索创设消费领域专项再贷款工具，或在现有结构性工具中单列消费信贷支持额度，定向支持金融机构发放汽车贷、家居焕新贷款及县域商贸流通贷款。另一方面，推动财政贴息和风险补偿基金下沉。考虑支持有条件的地区在财政可承受范围内，依托地方政府性融资担保体系，因地制宜建立消费信贷风险分担机制，对商业银行发放的信用消费贷按实际损失给予阶梯式补偿，并与征信体系建设联动，避免道德风险，切实消除银行“不敢贷”顾虑。此外，还需优化监管考核“指挥棒”，可考虑将普惠型消费贷款增速、县域及农村地区信贷可得性等作为服务实体经济质效评价的重要参考指标，纳入普惠金融服务效能评估体系。

Deepen reform, and enhance the capacity of financial institutions to support expanding domestic demand. Financial institutions are the “capillaries” of the financial system and important vehicles for policy implementation; effectively enhancing the capacity of financial institutions is crucial. On the one hand, promote the transformation of commercial banks’ credit models from “collateral dependence” to “credit-driven.” Relying on the continuously improved national integrated government big data system and the financial credit information basic database, form digital credit profiles covering various types of business entities. On this basis, systematically promote flexible lending models such as “renewing loans without repaying principal” and “borrowing and repaying on demand,” and normalize the reduction of financing turnover costs for small and micro enterprises; precisely align with the one-time credit repair policy issued by the People’s Bank of China in December 2025, carry out credit information adjustments in accordance with laws and regulations, effectively implement the requirement of “enjoying benefits without application,” and provide an efficient, fair, and predictable credit reconstruction channel for short-term overdue entities that meet the conditions. On the other hand, prudently expand compliant pathways for the deep integration of consumer finance and the real economy. Consider supporting commercial banks, on the premise of independently performing risk control duties in accordance with the law, to carry out safe and controllable technical collaboration with licensed technology companies in accordance with laws and regulations, and explore optimization of credit services based on real transaction backgrounds.

深化改革，提升金融机构支持扩大内需的能力。金融机构是金融体系的“毛细血管”，是政策落地的重要载体，有效提升金融机构能力十分关键。一方面，可推动商业银行的信贷模式从“抵押依赖”向“信用驱动”转型。依托持续完善的全国一体化政务大数据体系、金融信用信息基础数据库，形成覆盖各类经营主体的数字信用画像。在此基础上，制度化推广“无还本续贷”“随借随还”等灵活用款模式，常态化压降小微企业融资周转成本；精准对接中国人民银行2025年12月发布的一次性信用修复政策，依法依规开展信用信息调整，切实落实“免申即享”要求，为符合条件的短期逾期主体提供高效、公平、可预期的信用重建通道。另一方面，审慎拓展消费金融与实体经济深度融合的合规路径。考虑支持商业银行在依法履行独立风控职责前提下，与持牌科技公司依法依规开展安全可控的技术协同，探索基于真实交易背景的信贷服务优化。

Improve the ecosystem, and achieve multi-stakeholder coordination among government, market, and society. Expanding domestic demand is a systematic project that should be planned comprehensively and pursued through multiple channels. First, consider jointly building relevant information service platforms, integrating consumption promotion policies from various departments, business district activities across regions, promotional information from key enterprises, and preferential products from financial institutions, to solve the problem of information asymmetry between supply and demand. Second, innovate methods of financial support for rural revitalization and county economic development. Support commercial banks, relying on county-level legal person financial institutions, to establish county-level inclusive finance specialized institutions or characteristic service outlets. On the premise of strictly following prudential regulatory requirements and independently using their own risk control models for credit decision-making, combine with local government supporting infrastructure such as cold chain logistics and e-commerce live-streaming bases, to form a support mechanism of “funds + technology + channels + brands,” while simultaneously improving the “government-bank-guarantee” risk-sharing mechanism. Third, fully leverage the hub function of the capital market, providing green channels for market financing for qualified consumer enterprises. Include community shopping centers and standardized community commercial centers with clear property rights, market-oriented operating entities, stable cash flows, and alignment with national industrial policy guidance, into the pilot scope of real estate investment trusts in the consumer infrastructure sector, revitalizing existing stock and leveraging incremental growth.

完善生态，实现政府、市场、社会多元协同。扩大内需是一项系统工程，应当统筹兼顾、多管齐下。一是可考虑共建相关信息服务平台，整合各部门消费促进政策、各地商圈活动、重点企业促销信息、金融机构优惠产品等，解决供需双方信息不对称难题。二是创新金融支持乡村振兴和县域经济发展的方式，可支持商业银行依托县域法人银行机构设立县域普惠金融专营机构或特色服务网点，在严格遵循审慎监管要求、独立运用自身风控模型开展授信决策的前提下，结合地方政府配套建设冷链物流、电商直播基地等基础设施，形成“资金+技术+渠道+品牌”的帮扶机制，同步健全“政银担”风险分担机制。三是充分发挥资本市场枢纽功能，为符合条件的消费类企业提供市场融资绿色通道，将权属清晰、运营主体市场化、现金流稳定且符合国家产业政策导向的社区型购物中心、标准化社区商业中心等纳入消费基础设施领域不动产投资信托基金试点范围，盘活存量、撬动增量。

(The authors are respectively a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a Professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)

（作者分别系中国社会科学院习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员、中南财经政法大学教授）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧