People select snacks in a store at Gulou street in Beijing, capital of China, July 30, 2025. Beijing has vigorously developed its night economy since the beginning of this summer, featuring local cuisine, outdoor films, music festivals, and night markets. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

China's economy continued to demonstrate strong momentum in the first half of 2025, with 13.278 million new business entities registered nationwide and business entities showing robust activity, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced on Tuesday.

The substantial growth in new market entities reflects positive macroeconomic momentum and steadfast improvement, with key industrial segments driving vitality and supporting the recovery, Chinese experts said.

Number of new private businesses and foreign-invested enterprises both expanded. A total of 4.346 million new private enterprises were established, up 4.6 percent year-on-year, while the number of new foreign-funded entities rose by 4.1 percent, which underscores investors' confidence and China's enduring appeal as a global investment hub.

Also, the economic structure continued to optimize, led by a booming tertiary sector, which account for 11.712 million new entities. The secondary and primary industries followed with 965,000 and 601,000 new business entities, respectively. 

As of the end of June, enterprises' registration in the four new economy sectors -- new technologies, new industries, new formats, and new business models -- totaled 25.361 million, representing 40.2 percent of all new enterprises and growing 6.6 percent year-on-year.

The outstanding performer was the culture, sports, and entertainment sector, which recorded a 17.5 percent year-on-year increase—the highest among all industries—driven by the global success of holders of homegrown intellectual properties such as Ne Zha, Monkey King, and POP MART.

Market entities are a crucial indicator of macroeconomic performance, and the latest figures clearly reflect steady economic improvement, Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Li noted that key segments like foreign-invested enterprises, new economy businesses, and culture entities are growing rapidly, driving market vitality. Notably, the 4.1 percent growth in foreign-invested enterprises underscores China's strong appeal to global investment.

The large number of new entities emerging in the first half year indicates abundant untapped market and business opportunities, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"New market entities fuel economic vitality across a wider range of sectors. On the supply side, they bring new technologies and business models to optimize economic structure, transform traditional industries, and boost market supply and  development quality. For employment, they create more jobs and new incomes, and drive consumption in a virtuous cycle," Wang said.

The statistics reflect market entities' rising confidence in growth prospects, despite a very complex external environment, indicating the economy has strong resilience and potential, Wang said.

Overall, the growth of new business entities supports the economic expansion in the second half, and boosting China's economic recovery, Li said.

China's GDP expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics said in July.

Since the beginning of the year, China has accelerated the implementation of a set of more proactive macroeconomic policies. The economy has made steady progress despite pressure. In the first six months, industrial output increased by 6.4 percent year-on-year, retail sales expanded by 5 percent, and fixed-asset investment grew by 2.8 percent. 

A poll by Bank of America fund managers showed that expectations for Chinese economic growth rose to a five-month high in August, with 11 percent of those surveyed expecting stronger growth in 2025, the highest level since March.