CCTV News: The National Information Center recently released a series of high-frequency indicators, sending a signal of a positive economic recovery. First of all, let’s look at investment. Since the beginning of the year, infrastructure investment has shown positive changes in “adequate funding guarantees and accelerated project implementation.”

Excavators are the "standard configuration" of infrastructure construction and are the weather vane for observing changes in economic data such as fixed asset investment. From January to February this year, the national domestic sales of excavators increased by 51.4% year-on-year, reflecting the acceleration of construction in farmland water conservancy, forestry, transportation, municipal engineering, mining and other fields. At the same time, in the first two months, the national excavator index was 37.38%, an increase of 2.91% year-on-year, and the progress of infrastructure project construction accelerated. Among them, the busiest is the central region, with the operating rate increasing by 6.02% year-on-year.

Ear February, the lifting equipment performed very well, with an operating rate of 56.63%, far exceeding other major equipment. Lifting equipment is often used in the installation of large-scale equipment, structural lifting and other links.

Shen Chunfeng, an expert in the tree root interconnected excavator index, said: "Its high start-up rate means that more infrastructure projects have entered the late stage of construction in February. This is due to the continuous development of major infrastructure projects in many places in the beginning of 2025, and strong investment in railways, highways, energy and other fields."

In February, the busiest provinces started construction were Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, etc. Data shows that although February is during the Spring Festival holiday, nearly half of the equipment in these provinces still work overtime, and the infrastructure is in a busy situation.

The construction of the project is speeding up, and the demand for building materials is also growing rapidly. Data from the National Information Center shows that apparent consumption of steels such as rebar and wire increased by 41.5% in late February compared with early February.

In addition, the winning amount of national project investment monitored by the National Information Center increased by 9.2% year-on-year from January to February, and the popularity of project winnings maintained a rapid growth.

Consumption shows vitality, and hot spots in many fields are frequently appearing

Look at consumption. Since this year, the combination of consumption policies has effectively leveraged the huge potential of domestic demand, and hot spots in many fields are frequently appearing, showing a vigorous and upward development trend.

The offline consumption popularity index compiled by the National Information Center shows that the year-on-year increase of 13.6% from January to February, an increase of 7.2 percentage points from December last year, and the offline consumption popularity continues to rise. Especially this year, the old-for-new policy has expanded the scope of subsidies, and the increase in home appliances from "8+N" to "12+N" has become the focus of consumers' attention.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that as of March 5, more than 9.4 million consumers have purchased more than 12 million units of 12 major household appliances for new products, and more than 34 million consumers have applied for new subsidies for purchases of more than 42 million mobile phones and other digital products.

Commodity consumption is booming, and service consumption growth rate rebounds. The National Information Center's popularity index for life service consumption constructed by the e-commerce platform increased by 20.1% year-on-year from January to February. Among them, the popularity of leisure, entertainment, catering and tourism increased by 79.1%, 15.4% and 5.9% year-on-year respectively.

Wei Ying, deputy director of the Big Data Development Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that since the beginning of this year, the consumer market has seen frequent highlights, showing strong vitality and potential, and providing strong support for economic growth. The fundamental role of consumption in economic growth is becoming increasingly prominent.

Foreign trade shows resilience, and the port logistics index has grown. In terms of foreign trade, since the beginning of the year, the national port logistics popularity has grown steadily, and the bonded area traffic hotline index has continued to improve, showing the strong resilience of my country's foreign trade development.

The latest data from the National Information Center shows that in the first two months of this year, the national port freight vehicle transportation index increased by 29.3% year-on-year, of which 67% year-on-year in February, setting a record high since 2024, and the port logistics popularity achieved steady growth. The busyness of airports is also increasing. From January to February, the average number of international cargo flights in my country increased by 39.7% year-on-year.

The bonded zone flow popularity index, which reflects the pilot indicator of future trade trends, rose by 14.6% year-on-year in the first two months. In 25 provinces, the index rose year-on-year, an increase of 11 from December last year, showing strong resilience in my country's foreign trade development.

Wei Ying, deputy director of the Big Data Development Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that with the coordinated efforts of existing policies and a package of incremental policies, and continued to show results, from January to February this year, a number of high-frequency data achieved stable and rapid growth. Many areas of my country's economy "started strongly and started well", showing a recovery trend of "strong resilience, many highlights and high quality". As policy efficiency continues to be released, market confidence has been significantly boosted, and the momentum of economic recovery and improvement has been continuously strengthened, laying a solid foundation for the realization of the annual development goals.