Zhu Yunlai: Supporting Financial Innovation for High-Quality Development (Full Speech)

Source: Finance ThinkTank

On March 23, the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Conference was held in Beijing, where Professor Zhu Yunlai from Tsinghua University delivered a speech.

Zhu Yunlai suggested that, compared to GDP and other output data, the capital flow data released by the National Bureau of Statistics also possesses significant research value. By deeply exploring comprehensive data such as capital flow tables, we can not only observe common current flow indicators like consumption and investment but also gain insights into total assets, total savings, and the status of liabilities, thus obtaining a more complete analytical perspective.

“From an economic principle perspective, asset efficiency is always a key variable that we must pay close attention to,” Zhu Yunlai said. “The improvement of unit asset efficiency can significantly reduce inputs while keeping GDP output unchanged. The resources and returns released by efficiency improvements can further be transformed into consumption power, driving domestic demand.”

Using new energy and wind power equipment manufacturing as an example, Zhu Yunlai explained that “through technological advancements and improvements in management processes, effectively lowering investment costs and enhancing asset efficiency is fully feasible.”

“Creating higher income through efficiency improvements, and then using that higher income to support consumption growth, is the fundamental path to expanding consumption,” Zhu Yunlai concluded.

Subsequently, Zhu Yunlai compared the asset scales of China, the United States, and Europe. Although both the GDP and total asset amount of the United States are growing, the growth rate of U.S. asset scale is significantly lower than that of China. In terms of total fixed assets, China’s net fixed asset value is about 400 trillion yuan, while the U.S. is approximately 3/4 of that, around 300 trillion yuan, and Europe is about half of that of the United States. “China’s asset scale accounts for a larger proportion globally compared to China’s GDP output in the world,” Zhu Yunlai stated.

From a historical perspective, Zhu Yunlai noted that nearly 200 years of explosive growth in the human economy has created 90% of the wealth accumulation in 2000 years of history. “This vividly demonstrates the value and significance of efficiency in economic growth; long-term continuous investment may not be the only important factor, and the grasping of critical opportunities and the management of chances are equally indispensable.”

Zhu Yunlai emphasized that only by comprehensively mastering more economic variables can we understand the economy more systematically and thoroughly, allowing finance to support the economy in a more systematic, precise, and effective manner.

(Editor: Wenjing)

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