During the National Day, prices are expected to continue to operate smoothly. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, will continue to closely monitor the market price changes of important commodities for people’s livelihood, and take corresponding control measures in a timely manner as needed to keep prices basically stable. The National Development and Reform Commission will continue to regard stable employment as the lower limit of macro-control and the top of the "six stabilities", conscientiously implement the employment priority strategy with relevant departments, further improve the response measures, and stabilize and expand employment in a multi-pronged manner — —

　　On September 18th, the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference to release the macroeconomic operation and answer questions from reporters. Meng Wei, deputy director and spokesperson of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the measures to ensure supply and stabilize prices have been effectively implemented and have produced certain positive results.

　　Prices are expected to remain stable.

　　From January to August, the consumer price index (CPI) rose by an average of 2.4% year-on-year, and rose by 2.8% year-on-year in August, which was the same as last month. The PPI of industrial producers rose by 0.1% compared with the same period of last year, and fell by 0.8% in August. Meng Wei said that since the beginning of this year, China’s prices have been operating in a reasonable range. Looking further, the structural characteristics of rising prices are obvious. Affected by African swine fever epidemic and other factors, pork prices rose significantly, driving food prices to increase significantly. However, judging from the core CPI excluding food and energy prices, it rose by 1.5% year-on-year in August and rose by 1.7% on average from January to August.

　　"Maintaining the basic stability of prices, especially the prices of important people’s livelihood commodities, is related to the basic livelihood of the people, especially the people in need. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to this." Meng Wei said that since the beginning of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission has conscientiously implemented the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and issued a series of policies and measures with relevant departments to ensure market supply and promote basic price stability. For example, take the lead in formulating plans and measures to ensure supply and price stability, vigorously support the construction of pig breeding capacity, enhance the ability of reserve regulation, and earnestly ensure the basic living security of people in need. At present, some measures have been effectively implemented and have produced positive results.

　　According to reports, from the recent monitoring situation, pork prices tend to be stable. From September 11 to September 17, the average daily retail price of pork in 36 large and medium-sized cities increased by 0.28%, which was significantly narrower than that in August. On September 17th, the average prices of fruits and vegetables dropped by 3.2% and 2.2% respectively compared with the end of August.

　　Meng Wei said that from the analysis of price trends, prices are expected to continue to operate smoothly during the National Day. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, will continue to closely monitor the market price changes of important commodities for people’s livelihood, and take corresponding control measures in a timely manner as needed to keep prices basically stable.

　　Multi-pronged approach to stabilize and expand employment

　　Stable employment is the first of the "six stabilities". Meng Wei said that from the current situation, China’s employment situation is generally stable.

　　First, new jobs have grown steadily. From January to August, 9.84 million new jobs were created in cities and towns across the country, which has achieved 89.5% of the annual target; In August, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 5.2%, down 0.1 percentage point from July, and both July and August were below the control target of 5.5%.

　　Second, the market supply and demand are basically balanced. The recruitment ratio of human resources market in 11 provinces and cities such as Guangdong is still higher than 1, and the job demand is greater than the number of job seekers.

　　Third, the employment of key groups is generally stable. As of July 1, the employment rate of college graduates in 2019 was 68.3%, which was basically the same as the same period last year; At the end of the second quarter, the total number of migrant workers in rural areas reached 180 million, an increase of 2.26 million over the same period last year; By the end of July, 10.96 million poor laborers had been employed, an increase of 1.08 million over the end of last year.

　　Meng Wei said that at present, China’s economic operation is still in a reasonable range, the service industry with large employment capacity has developed rapidly, and the role of innovation and entrepreneurship has been continuously enhanced; At the same time, China has formed a relatively complete employment and entrepreneurship policy and service system, which have provided strong support for achieving higher quality and full employment.

　　Since the beginning of this year, the State Council and relevant departments have successively introduced and implemented a number of policies and measures to stabilize employment, such as reducing taxes and fees, helping enterprises to stabilize their posts, vocational training, and expanding enrollment in higher vocational colleges, and the effects have gradually emerged. Meng Wei said that in the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to regard stable employment as the lower limit of macroeconomic regulation and control and the top of the "six stabilities", conscientiously implement the employment priority strategy with relevant departments, adhere to focusing on key points and making precise policies, and further improve the response measures while doing a good job in implementing the established policies, and stabilize and expand employment in a multi-pronged manner.

　　Infrastructure investment accelerated.

　　The data shows that from January to August, the national infrastructure investment increased by 4.2% year-on-year, 0.4 percentage points faster than that from January to July. In August, the National Development and Reform Commission approved 9 fixed assets investment projects with a total investment of 68.9 billion yuan.

　　The 2019 "Government Work Report" proposed that the target task of "completing railway investment of 800 billion yuan" should be achieved this year. In response to the statement that "the absolute amount of railway investment has slowed down in the past two months", Meng Wei said that since the beginning of this year, the completion of railway investment has been generally stable. From January to August, China’s railway investment in fixed assets reached 449.6 billion yuan, basically equivalent to the same period last year.

　　In order to complete this year’s railway investment task and lay a good foundation for subsequent construction, the National Development and Reform Commission will further intensify its work with relevant departments, China State Railway Group Co.,Ltd. and relevant places, focusing on "three batches", that is, "one batch under construction, one batch under construction and one batch under reserve".

　　We will steadily build a number of major projects. Railway construction projects are still short-term in the central and western regions of China. It is necessary to focus on the central and western regions, continue to promote the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" main passages of high-speed railways, improve the layout of trunk road networks, and urge the project funds to be in place in time and in full.

　　Promote the start of a number of major projects. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission approved a number of railway projects. Among them, the feasibility study report of Chongqing-Kunming high-speed railway was recently approved, with a total investment of 141.6 billion yuan, which is the largest railway project approved by the National Development and Reform Commission since the 13th Five-Year Plan. In addition, there are still several backbone channel projects that are actively carrying out preliminary work, and will be approved item by item once conditions are met.

　　Plan and reserve a number of major projects. In order to give full play to the basic supporting role of railways in the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other major strategies, the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant parties are speeding up the preparation of relevant special transportation plans in combination with the preliminary research of the Tenth Five-Year Plan. The next step will be to incorporate the research of major projects with accurate and influential views into the plan, strengthen the project reserve, and form a good situation of combining far and near and connecting in steps.

　　"In short, we will work with relevant parties to focus on accurate investment and effective investment and give full play to the positive role of investment in promoting economic and social development." Meng Wei said. (Economic Daily China Economic Net reporter Xiong Li)