Eric's party's policy has softened a lot in recent years.
埃里克所在的政党近些年的政策已经变得温和多了。
Tom blames the
softening economy.
汤姆把这归咎于疲软的经济。
Lisa began to soften.
丽萨开始心软了
She tried to soften the blow by telling him gently.
她试图通过温柔地告诉他来减轻打击。
Adding a bit of honey can soften the taste of the medicine.
加一点蜂蜜可以缓解药物的味道。
He spoke in a soft voice to soften the harshness of his words.
他用柔和的声音说话，以减轻话语的刺耳。
A good soak will soften the fabric, making it easier to iron.
充分浸泡会使布料变软，更容易熨烫。
The decorator used pastel colors to soften the room's stark appearance.
装饰师使用淡色调来柔化房间生硬的外观。
A smile softened her severe expression.
一个微笑缓和了她严厉的表情。
The lotion is designed to soften and moisturize dry skin.
这款乳液旨在软化并滋润干燥的皮肤。
A period of economic growth softened the impact of earlier austerity measures.
一段时间的经济增长缓解了早先紧缩措施的影响。
He attempted to soften the criticism with a compliment.
他试图用赞美来缓和批评。
Boiling the potatoes for a few minutes will soften them before roasting.
将土豆煮几分钟再烤会使其变软。
Faced with softening external demand and fierce competition from countries such as Vietnam and India in the area of low-end production over the past three years, Chinese manufacturers — especially those from coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong — have been boosting their presence at domestic and international expos, as well as expanding channels in emerging markets to drive sales overseas this year.
在过去的三年里，面对疲软的外部需求和来自越南和印度等国在低端生产领域的激烈竞争，中国制造商——尤其是来自江苏、浙江、福建和广东等沿海省份的制造商——一直在扩大其在国内外博览会上的影响力，以及扩大新兴市场的渠道，以推动今年的海外销售。
Even though China's export growth rate slowed in November due to a variety of factors such as softening overseas demand and geopolitical tensions, market watchers have expressed optimism over prospects for the country's trade sector in 2023, believing that its industrial upgrading and moves to optimize COVID-19 prevention measures will further facilitate domestic manufacturers to expand their market channels abroad, as well as help boost global economic recovery.
尽管由于海外需求疲软和地缘政治紧张局势等多种因素，中国11月的出口增长率有所放缓，但市场观察人士对2023年中国贸易部门的前景表示乐观，相信其产业升级和优化新冠肺炎预防措施的举措将进一步促进国内制造商扩大海外市场渠道，并有助于推动全球经济复苏。
Commenting on the ability of Chinese brands to deal effectively with the many challenges faced by global businesses, Doreen Wang, Kantar Greater China CEO and Global Chair of Kantar BrandZ said, "In difficult economic times, having a strong brand does not make a business fully immune to changes of fortune, but it can help soften the blow.
在评论中国品牌有效应对全球企业面临的诸多挑战的能力时，凯度大中华区首席执行官兼凯度BrandZ全球主席Doreen Wang表示：“在经济困难时期，拥有强大的品牌并不能使企业完全免受命运变化的影响，但它有助于减轻打击。
The country's quarter-on-quarter economic growth may even accelerate later this year as consumption steadily recovers amid accelerated vaccination and a stabilized labor market, export growth remains resilient, and the recovery in manufacturing and infrastructure investment offsets a softening property sector, she said.
她表示，随着疫苗接种加速和劳动力市场的稳定，消费逐步复苏，今年晚些时候，该国经济的季度增长率甚至可能加快。出口增长保持强劲，制造业和基础设施投资的复苏抵消了房地产行业的疲软。
They have also helped soften the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic on China's economy by ensuring domestic energy security and the supply of anti-epidemic materials, she said.
He said: "Although there may be a small softening of the Chinese economy, we still expect to see more Chinese passengers visit the UK in the next few years.
Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido Co Ltd is pouring resources and betting on innovation in China as the 147-year-old firm aims to sharpen its focus in its largest overseas market against the backdrop of a softening global cosmetics industry.
But as the Fed is seen softening its aggressive monetary tightening in the second half of 2024, the US and Chinese monetary policies may gradually follow the same direction.
They said the new policies will offer competitive domestic market-oriented companies greater options to export and better participate in the international division of labor, as well as improve their ability to mitigate risks, especially while facing challenges such as softening overseas demand, geopolitical uncertainties and tough industrial transformation at home.
Pork prices continued to soften amid weaker-than-usual demand and abundant supply so far this month, indicating that November's CPI may continue to register a low reading, Nomura analysts said in a research note.
Even though the Chinese and Turkish economies have been affected by softening global goods demand and geo-economic fragmentation in recent years, the degree of interdependence between the two remains stable in bilateral trade, he said.
Sharing similar views, Liu Qing, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, said that given the softening demand for global goods, geoeconomic challenges and decline in cross-border investment, the RCEP, with its favorable policies like lower tariff rate and further opening-up in trade in services, will significantly enhance economic integration between China and ASEAN.
Given the softening global goods demand, geopolitical and geo-economic challenges, and decline in cross-border investment, the fully implemented RCEP pact will thus significantly enhance economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region and sustain the long-term and stable growth of the global economy, business leaders and government officials said.
Liu Guoqiang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said in mid-July in response to the country's softening price growth that "we don't see deflation at present and there will not be a deflationary risk in the second half of this year either.
Softening demand still top impediment to healthier bottom-line performancesProfits of China's major industrial firms shrank at a slower pace in June thanks to supportive government measures to ease burdens on companies, though softening demand continued to squeeze margins.
Secondly, economic vibrancy did soften in the April-June period, with weakening indicators from exports to industrial profits.
May data show the Chinese economy is softening year-on-year, from industrial output growth to fixed-asset investment expansion.
Despite COVID-19, softening global goods trade and geoeconomic tensions, China's trade in services bloomed on the back of continuous opening-up, the stable recovery of the services sector and digitalization, experts said.
Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, softening external demand, geopolitical and economic shocks and fierce competition from countries such as Vietnam and India in the area of low-end production over the past three years, Chinese manufacturers — especially those from coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong — have been boosting their presence at international expos and expanding market channels in emerging markets to drive sales overseas this year.
Since the fourth quarter of last year, however, China's exports began to soften considerably.
Given the softening global demand conditions and the gloomy business outlook in many parts of the world, Hua stressed that it is necessary to develop new foreign trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement to guide the city's exporters to promote overseas sales of wigs, lighters, bags and suitcases in 2023.
Disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, softening external demand and geopolitical shocks, container throughput at major foreign ports like Singapore fell by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 2.99 million TEUs in January, while the Port of Los Angeles in the United States processed 726,014 TEUs, dropping 16 percent on a yearly basis, according to information released by global shipping and port news provider PortNews.
Wang said that while exports may be a drag on China's 2023 outlook, given softening global demand conditions and a gloomy global outlook, domestic demand — including both consumption and investment — will be key drivers propelling China's growth.
Loo said that exports will also continue to be a major drag on the outlook for 2023, given the softening global demand conditions, an eventual run-down inventories across key advanced economies and the ongoing global manufacturing and semiconductor downcycles.
In response to softening consumption in Europe, Zhang said the company optimized its product structure and brought more than 600 inexpensive and high-quality products to the exhibition.
Amid faltering global trade and softening demand for various goods, owners and sales heads of Chinese export-oriented companies in provinces including Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian and Sichuan have taken both chartered and commercial flights to several countries to participate in business events, such as Asia Fashion Fair 2022 Tokyo, Food Ingredients Europe 2022 in Paris and China Homelife Dubai 2022 over the past two months.
Amid faltering global trade and softening demand for various goods, owners and sales heads of Chinese export-oriented companies in provinces like Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian and Sichuan have turned jet-setters, participating in business events such as the Asia Fashion Fair 2022 Tokyo, the Food Ingredients Europe 2022 in Paris and the China Homelife Dubai 2022.
Jet-setting emerged as an urgent response to a decline in overall export performance in recent months, affected mainly by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and softening demand for goods in many countries, said Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.
The monthly slowdown was mainly affected by softening overseas demand, inflation pressure and a high growth base during the same period last year.
However, amid softening global demand, geopolitical issues, sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 and other elements, the growth rates for monthly trade have slowed down in recent months, which is in line with global economic and trade trends, Sun Xiao, spokesman for the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, or the CCPIT, said at a monthly news conference.
然而，中国贸促会（北京总部）新闻发言人孙晓在月度新闻发布会上表示，由于全球需求疲软、地缘政治问题、零星爆发的新冠疫情以及其他因素，近几个月我国月度贸易增长率有所放缓，这一趋势与当前全球经济和贸易的整体走向一致。
Q2: Is there any added significance to the CIIE in the context of the downward pressures on the global economy brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and its softening effect on global demand?
With the growth of China's foreign trade dropping from 8.3 percent in September to 6.9 percent in October, experts said that external factors such as softening global consumption demand and high inflation will continue to pose challenges to companies at home in the fourth quarter and next year.
随着中国对外贸易增长率从9月份的8.3%下滑至10月份的6.9%，专家表示，诸如全球消费需求疲软和高通胀等外部因素将在第四季度及明年继续对国内企业构成挑战。
More efforts are needed to consolidate the recovery, said Zhu, citing reasons including relatively higher costs for businesses, softening market demand in certain sectors, increasing operating pressure, as well as a more complex global landscape.
In the second half, efforts in the government sector will determine the pace of economic recovery, as no sign of obvious recovery impetus has been evident in the private sector and overseas demand for Chinese products is likely to soften.
Chen Weidong, director of the research institute at the Bank of China, said China's economy has gradually stabilized with the help of a series of government stimulus measures after a softening of economic activity since March amid resurgent domestic COVID-19 cases.
To better deal with the high inflation, experts said the US government should make more efforts to strengthen international cooperation, remove all additional tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, soften and end geopolitical conflicts and actively participate in the cooperation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The softening demand led to weaker property investment.
The multiple policy measures the Chinese government will continue to implement to support foreign trade growth, as included in the Government Work Report, will inject more vitality into the sector, they said, adding that overseas demand may rise thanks to the nation's stable industrial and supply chains amid global uncertainties, although COVID-related demand for Chinese exports is likely to soften.
As to the slightly lower deficit ratio set in the government work report, Liu said the intensity of fiscal spending will strengthen significantly compared with last year, rather than soften.
Experts said China's softening price rises have widened the room for monetary easing.
Some places have announced policies to improve the local business environment by mitigating existing difficulties, so as to soften the impact of new downward pressure, thereby further energizing the markets.
"I don't think the Chinese economy is facing stagflation," Kang added, stating that consumer inflation has remained mild while the spike in industrial goods prices has started to soften with the recovering supply of electricity and commodities.
Other real estate data, such as sales, new construction and investment, showed a softening trend, and the willingness of real estate enterprises to purchase land has also weakened significantly.
Although pork prices have been falling, thus somewhat softening the impact of costlier vegetables, concerns about rising inflationary risks have been growing.
While domestic demand has picked up thanks to a softening COVID-19 situation between late-September and mid-October, constraints from the supply side have become a prominent factor hampering growth.
Analysts said they believe the sector was mainly hit by surging raw material and commodity prices, constraints in energy supply in September, and a softening in demand.
"Even with an easing of supply side pressures, however, we expect GDP growth will soften significantly in Q4, largely due to the real estate weakness," Kuijs said.
"While the softening base effect from last year poses certain challenges for the rest of the year, an overall healthy job market and steady increase in household income have laid the foundation for stronger consumption amid a stabilized epidemic situation.
Economic recovery remains unstable amid challenges, says National Bureau of StatisticsChina's economy is expected to gain firmer footing in the rest of the year as the softening growth figures for the past quarter trigger stronger macro policy support and better coordination among multiple policy objectives, officials and experts said on Monday.
Tang added that infrastructure investment may steadily speed up and play an important role in stabilizing demand in the coming two or three quarters, offsetting a possible softening in exports and property development.
Despite the recent softening of growth momentum, the Chinese economy remains on the path to recovery supported by timely and effective policy measures to shore up domestic consumption and investment.
Investment in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors is expected to play a key role in stabilizing China's economic growth in the coming months amid intensified policy support, after retail sales and property development showed signs of softening, officials and experts said on Wednesday.
Although the economy showed more signs of softening in August, the nation is expected to continue to implement property sector regulations aimed at stabilizing housing prices and developers' debt ratio, said Lu Ting, Nomura's chief China economist.
The price rise in industrial consumer goods and services also slowed amid softening international oil prices and domestic COVID-19 cases that dampened the demand for travel and transportation, the NBS said.
Experts also said they expect the government to bolster market demand by shoring up the growth in infrastructure investment－a laggard in the country's investment recovery－which can help offset the possible cooling in property development and softening in export growth.
Their comments came after China reported the weakest reading for manufacturing activities since the initial wave of COVID-19 in February 2020, due to a combination of the spread of the Delta variant, heavy rains, softening market demand, and energy-intensive sectors that stayed subdued in August.
Wu said the manufacturing sector will likely continue to expand over the remainder of the year as market demand recovers, but the expansion may be only moderate due to a possible softening in export orders and elevated cost pressure for downstream companies.
The official purchasing managers index for China's manufacturing sector declined for the fifth consecutive month to 50.1 in August, the lowest level in 18 months, indicating a softening expansion of the sector, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
By contrast, decarbonization could soften growth of the United States economy in the next 10 years, given its large oil and gas industries, according to the firm's study.
Also, the nation's strong investment in property development will soften due to tougher government policies to stabilize housing prices, he said.
This could put some pressure on achieving the government's employment goals as well as China's recovery in consumption, a key pillar of economic growth amid softening prospects for exports, Wang said.
Buoyed by a growing services sector that offset the softening in manufacturing activities, the composite Caixin PMI, which covers both the sectors, grew to 53.1 in July from 50.6 in June, pointing to a stronger rise in overall business activities.
The recovery of China's manufacturing sector slowed down in July due to softening local demand and elevated cost pressure, raising more hopes that policymakers will ramp up policy support and consolidate economic recovery in the coming months, experts said on Monday.
Despite the recent softening of growth momentum, the Chinese economy remains steady recovery supported by timely and effective government measures to shore up domestic consumption and investment.
Rises in fixed assets, manufacturing soften infrastructure decelerationRecovery in China's fixed-asset investment will strengthen and help shore up the economy in the coming months, thanks to ramped-up policy supports and improved business vitality, officials and experts said on Thursday.
Wen Bin, chief researcher at China Minsheng Bank, said property development has started to cool down as government efforts to curb speculation paid off and is expected to further soften, going forward.
The softening of expansion was mainly caused by some small resurgence of COVID-19 cases and the consequent impediments to supply chains, media group Caixin said in a report on Thursday.
Meanwhile, as last year's base effect will continue to soften in the months to come, intertwined pressure on growth and inflation will be worth noticing in the second half of this year.
With global commodity prices softening, China's full-year growth in CPI may average about 1.5 percent, lower than the government's expected goal of about 3 percent, said Zhu Haibin, JPMorgan's chief China economist.
However, the World Bank cautioned that following this year's cyclical rebound, China's economy is projected to slow over the medium term, reflecting the legacies of excessive borrowing as well as structural trends, including declining labor supply and softening productivity growth.
China's continuing growth momentum has provided room for gradual policy normalization to stabilize the macro leverage ratio, Xing said, adding that he expects broad credit growth to soften to 11 percent on a yearly basis by the end of this year.
China's continuing growth momentum has provided room for gradual policy normalization to stabilize the macro leverage ratio, Xing said, adding that he expects broad credit growth to soften to 11 percent year-on-year by the end of 2021.
The mild consumer inflation level and softening prices of pork, the mainstay of China's meat consumption, will contribute to this year's policy focus of safeguarding people's basic living conditions, Liu said.
The CPI growth moderated as food prices continued to soften last month.
"But there are smart policy options available that can soften these trade-offs, such as investing in testing and tracing capacity and durably expanding social protection to cover the poor and the informal sector.
但是，存在一些明智的政策选项，能够缓解这些权衡困境，比如投资提升检测和追踪能力，并持久扩大社会保护范围以覆盖贫困人群和非正规行业。
With escalating labor costs putting pressure on traditional manufacturing sectors in China's coastal areas, coupled with a surge in trade protectionism by certain countries and softening external demand, these measures have been crafted to create new growth points, said Zhang Jianping, director of the China Center for Regional Economic Cooperation at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.
To tackle challenges such as softening demand in many countries, the disruption of global supply chains, geoeconomic challenges and a decline in cross-border investment, the holding of trade fairs in key sectors is conducive to enhancing cooperation and sharing opportunities among businesses from various countries, said Lin Shunjie, board chairman of Beijing-based China International Exhibition Center Group Ltd. To further unlock the potential of foreign investment in the domestic market amid current uncertainties shrouding the global economy, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the country's top foreign trade and investment promotion agency, and China International Exhibition Center Group will hold the inaugural China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing from Nov 28 to Dec 2.
Echoing Zhu's sentiments, Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group, said more efforts are needed to boost employment after the Caixin purchasing managers index survey pointed to softening growth momentum across China's services sector in September.
A lack of new demand remains the key problem for the softening office market, said Lu, adding the rent will probably remain flat in the coming months.
Although the space surrendering trend faded out in the quarter, softening leasing demand still resulted in limited net absorption citywide.
For Lu Ming, director of Research Department for North China at global real estate service provider Colliers, a lack of new demand remains the key problem for the softening office market.
"Moreover, expanding domestic demand is fairly critical to bolstering China's economy amid continuously softening overseas demand, with infrastructure investment to continue to drive stable economic growth," he noted.
China has moved to soften the environmental impact of the textile industry.
Therefore I believe current risks will eventually be eased and existing property regulations can continue to soften.
As many countries face economic weakness and the cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze spending, consumer-driven demand will likely soften, although there should be pockets of strength," she added.
They made the remarks as services and manufacturing sector activity expanded in June after softening since March amid multiple hits from domestic COVID-19 cases.
"Beijing's office market is expected to go through more tough times in the second half due to a slowing macroeconomy, softening market demand and a significant supply influx," said Vincent Li, associate director of North China at Savills.
第一太平戴维斯华北区副董事李欣表示：“由于宏观经济放缓、市场需求疲软以及大量新增供应，北京办公市场预计在下半年将面临更多挑战。”
Surveyed companies also showed strong confidence regarding business prospects, despite a softening from the previous month.
Fashion retailers were able to leverage online campaigns to help soften the blow, leaving restaurants and experience-oriented retailers under more pressure than others.
To soften the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, China has ramped up financial support, including subsidies and loans to major pig-producing counties to restore production.
To soften the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, China has ramped up financial support including subsidies and loans to major pig producing counties to restore production.
While profits in 39 of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed fell in Q1 from the same period last year, 28 sectors saw their profit growth improve or pullback soften in March, according to the NBS.
However, with domestic crude demand softening and potentially more US oil purchases coming in as part of a trade deal, there could be some structural changes in China's crude purchase: that is, medium or heavy crude could be marginally reduced to make space for US light and sweet oil, he said.
Profits of China's auto sector fell 15.3 percent year-on-year last year amid softening domestic demand, with revenues retreating 1.66 percent.
- Soaring pork prices in China continued to soften last week as the country rolled out multiple measures to stabilize hog production.
Profits of major Chinese industrial firms shrank in the first eight months, leading to calls for further support for sectors hit by slowing orders and softening prices.
And gold for industrial purposes fell 0.6 percent year-on-year to 51.36 tons, it said, adding that the softening demand for gold in China is partly due to the increasing gold prices.
The rise in services activity was supported by a further significant increase in new business across the sector, despite the new order growth rate softening slightly since March.
He suggested that such policies should soften gradually, and market sentiment should be observed carefully in the process.
Profit growth among China's industrial firms cooled for a sixth straight month in October due to softening factory prices and a high comparative base effect, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.