Beijing’s hopes for an economic revival after recording slowing growth last year will depend in large part on the animal spirits of small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for the majority of output, urban employment and tax revenues but were hit hard by the pandemic.

While China’s best-known private-sector companies are tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent, SMEs — officially defined as companies with 1,000 or fewer employees — account for about 80 per cent of total employment and 70 per cent of corporate revenue, making them a crucial driver of any economic recovery.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced on Tuesday that the economy expanded by just 3 per cent last year, far below the government’s target of 5.5 per cent and the second-weakest growth figure since 1976.