On May 23, PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the top four international accounting firms, released a report saying that the domestic economy will gradually pick up in 2023, and the role of consumption as the main engine driving the economy will become more prominent, especially in terms of industry mergers and acquisitions. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, mergers and acquisitions were relatively active last year. The consumer sector in China accounted for the highest share of mergers and acquisitions in the past 3 years. The annual amount of mergers and acquisitions was 23.77 billion US dollars, and the total number of mergers and acquisitions was 599. “The reason for this, on the one hand, is that due to the impact of the economic cycle, the valuation of M&A targets will be more reasonable, which is conducive to the development of mergers and acquisitions transactions. On the other hand, investment institutions and enterprises are more inclined to focus on their own business development to increase the market share of acquirers, enhance their industry competitiveness, and achieve scale effects through resource integration.” PricewaterhouseCoopers said. (Tian Zhongfang, reporter from Pengpai News)