China’s "Two News" Policy Delivers Remarkable Results in Boosting Investment and Consumption

The National Development and Reform Commission announced on the 28th that on March 7, 2024, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In, marking the official launch and implementation of the "Two News" policy. Over the past two years, a total of 800 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds has been arranged to steadily advance the "four major actions"—equipment renewal, consumer goods trade-in, recycling and reuse, and standard upgrading—continuing to play an important role in stabilizing investment, expanding consumption, promoting transformation and benefiting people’s livelihood.

Large-scale equipment renewal has achieved remarkable results, effectively driving investment growth. From 2024 to 2025, more than 13,000 equipment renewal projects drove a total investment of over 1.8 trillion yuan, supporting double-digit growth in national equipment and tool purchase investment for two consecutive years, driving overall investment by 2.2 and 1.8 percentage points respectively. More than 48 million sets of equipment in key areas have been updated, and the proportion of added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing has continued to rise. People’s livelihood protection has been continuously strengthened, with about 2.2 million sets of old agricultural machinery scrapped and updated, and 167,000 old residential elevators renewed, eliminating potential safety hazards for the public.

The trade-in of consumer goods has activated the market, with green and intelligent consumption becoming the mainstream. Over two years, 450 billion yuan in special treasury bond funds has been arranged, driving sales of commodities such as automobiles and home appliances to exceed 3.9 trillion yuan, benefiting 480 million person-times. Passenger car sales have grown steadily, and home appliance retail sales have maintained double-digit growth for two consecutive years. The trend of consumption upgrading is obvious: more than 60% of consumers choose new energy vehicles, the sales proportion of level 1 energy efficiency home appliances reaches 90%, and the sales volume of intelligent products has surged significantly.

The level of resource recycling has continued to improve, with the expansion and quality improvement of recycling outlets. More than 29,000 intelligent community recycling facilities have been added nationwide, and over 4,000 standardized stations have been renovated by the supply and marketing system. In two years, 17.673 million end-of-life vehicles have been recycled, and about 53 million used home appliances and mobile phones have been standardizedly disassembled, with an average annual growth rate of about 12%. Recycled resources account for about 27%, 33%, 31% and 25% of the raw materials for steel, copper, aluminum and plastic production respectively. The national recycling platform is accelerating construction, and the "reverse invoicing" system has benefited more than 15,000 enterprises.

A relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that 294 key core national standards planned to be formulated and revised in the "Two News" field have all been released. In the field of equipment renewal, 113 energy consumption and efficiency standards have been issued to force the elimination of backward production capacity; 115 quality and safety standards have been released in the consumer goods field; and 66 recycling standards have been implemented in the recycling field, continuously improving the standardization level of the whole chain. The National Development and Reform Commission will implement the optimized "Two News" policy in 2026, effectively manage and use 450 billion yuan in special treasury bond funds, and continuously release policy effects.