5.5% GDP Target: Proactive And Reasonable

China’s GDP growth target of around 5.5 percent represents output increment worth more than 9 trillion yuan ($1.42 trillion), almost equivalent to the annual output of an economy ranking the 11th or 12th biggest in the world, an official said on March 5.

The output increment represented by this year’s GDP growth target is also equivalent to a 7.4-percent GDP expansion by China five years ago and 10.5 percent a decade ago, said Xiang Dong, deputy head of the Research Office of the State Council.

In this sense, the GDP growth target of around 5.5 percent should be taken as a medium-high rate of growth, and as demonstrating China’s proactive pursuit of economic development, Xiang said at a news conference in Beijing on March 5.

This year’s GDP growth target is also “reasonable”, in line with China’s potential rate of growth and conducive to anchoring expectations, boosting confidence and building a consensus on the country’s development prospects, Xiang said.

“Stable economic conditions act as the basis,” he said. “If the economy turned unstable, employment and people’s incomes would be hard to stabilize, while risks and ‘landmines’ could manifest themselves.”

“Achieving economic growth of around 5.5 percent will lay the foundation for expanding employment and raising incomes, making sure that the economy continues to stay within a reasonable range,” he said.

Apart from meeting the needs to maintain stable employment, satisfy people’s basic living requirements and guard against risks, the setting of the GDP growth target also takes into account the requirements of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the average GDP growth rate over the last two years, Xiang added.

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