Annual Report 2023

Management Discussion and Analysis CHINA MERCHANTS PORT HOLDINGS COMPANY LIMITED 12 GENERAL OVERVIEW In 2023, the global economy showed some resilience. Extreme situations such as economic recession and deep- seated financial crises that were worried by the international community did not occur, however, the weak economic recovery still plagued most countries. The global economic landscape continued to experience adjustments, with severe geopolitical situations, frequent regional conflicts, rising trend of anti-globalization, significant rise in unilateral and protectionism, price fluctuations in the commodity market, prolonged inflation, and continuous accumulation of risks in the global financial market, which posed risks and challenges to the global economic development. The issue of global divergence has been growing, especially in emerging markets and developing economies, and regional divergence has become more and more obvious, which brought more uncertainties to the global economic development and adversely affected the steady recovery of the world economy. In accordance with the “World Economic Outlook” report published by the International Monetary Fund (“ IMF ”) in January 2024, the global economy was expected to grow by 3.1% year-on-year in 2023, representing a decrease of 0.4 percentage point as compared with 2022, of which the developed economies were projected to grow by 1.6%, down 1.0 percentage points year-on-year; and the emerging and developing economies were projected to grow by 4.1%, representing a flat growth year-on-year. With reference to the report of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the gross domestic product (“ GDP ”) of the United States increased by 2.5% year-on-year in 2023, up 0.6% over the previous year. According to the data from the Eurostat, due to the impact of the economic and technological recession, the GDP of the Eurozone was expected to increase by 0.5% year-on-year in 2023, of which the GDP of Germany decreased by 0.3% year-on-year; France’s GDP posted zero growth in the fourth quarter, up 0.9% for the full year; Japan’s third-quarter GDP recorded its first negative quarterly growth since 2023 and was forecast to fall by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter. South Korea’s GDP was projected to grow by 0.6% quarter-on- quarter in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 1.4% year-on-year due to exports and local consumption improved. In respect of global trade, it was expected that the global trade growth for 2023 would be 0.8%, far below half of the forecast in April 2023. This was mainly due to signs of a slowdown in trade in developed countries and some regions because of the impact of inflation. Under the complex international environment, China adhered to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, solidly promoted high-quality development, boosted the market confidence and expanded domestic demand, optimized structure and prevented risks. Thus the macro- control policies have achieved remarkable results and the market demand kept on improving. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the GDP of China in 2023 increased by 5.2% and economic growth has been ahead of that of major economies around the world. In general, under the downward pressure of the external economic environment, China continued to stablize the scale and optimize the structure, and various domestic policies gave notable results. As positive factors continued to accumulate, the overall development has been heading in a positive direction. According to the statistics published by the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, total foreign trade of import and export value of China amounted to RMB41.76 trillion in 2023, representing an increase of 0.2% year-on-year, among which the total export value was RMB23.77 trillion, up by 0.6% year-on-year, while the total import value was RMB17.99 trillion, down by 0.3% year-on-year.