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

Source: Finance ThinkTank

On March 23, the 2026 annual meeting of the China Development Forum will be held in Beijing. Zhu Yunlai, a professor of management practice at Tsinghua University, attended the conference and delivered a speech.

Zhu Yunlai proposed that, compared with production-output data such as GDP, the capital flow data released by the National Bureau of Statistics also has similarly high research value. By deeply exploring comprehensive data such as the capital flow statement, in addition to seeing commonly used current flow indicators like consumption and investment, we can also gain insight into the situation of stock variables such as total assets and total savings, as well as liabilities, thereby obtaining a more complete analytical perspective.

“From the perspective of economic principles, asset efficiency is always a key variable that we must pay close attention to.” Zhu Yunlai said: “An increase in unit asset efficiency can significantly reduce inputs while keeping GDP output unchanged. The resources and returns released by the efficiency improvement can further be converted into consumption momentum and help drive domestic demand.”

Using new energy and wind power equipment manufacturing as examples, Zhu Yunlai explained that “through technological progress and improvements in management processes, it is feasible to effectively lower investment costs and improve asset efficiency.”

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

He then compared the asset scales of China, the U.S., and Europe. Although both U.S. GDP and total assets are growing, the growth rate of the U.S. asset scale is significantly lower than China’s. In terms of net fixed asset totals, China’s net fixed assets are about 4 quadrillion yuan, the U.S. is about 3/4 of China’s, or roughly 3 quadrillion yuan, and Europe is about half of the U.S. “The share of our asset scale in the world is higher than the share of our GDP output in the world.” Zhu Yunlai said.

From a historical perspective, Zhu Yunlai said that the human economy’s explosive growth over nearly 200 years has created 90% of the wealth accumulated during the 2,000 years of history. “This actually vividly demonstrates the value and significance of efficiency for economic growth. A long, sustained investment may not be the only important factor; seizing key opportunities and mastering favorable moments is just as indispensable.”

Zhu Yunlai emphasized that only by comprehensively grasping more economic variables can we understand the economy more systematically and thoroughly, and can ensure that the financial sector’s support for the economy is more systematic, more precise, and more effective.

(Editor: Wenjing)

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