At the National People’s Congress, China's most prominent annual political meeting, Premier Li Qiang revealed an annual growth target of 5%.
“This is slightly below the realized 2023 level of 5.2%, but that number was achieved with 2022, the year of lockdowns, as the benchmark year,” says geopolitical analyst Mikkel Rosenvold. “So 5% growth target can be sold as quite ambitious internally in China while still being quite realistic to actually achieve.”
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Furthermore, Li unveiled a target for CPI growth of 3%, along with a fiscal deficit target of 3% as well, which is in line with last year’s figure. Lastly, China will aim at an unemployment rate of 5.5% while working to create 12 million urban jobs.
Although Li also announced new special government bonds investors, “who had been hoping for a bigger spending boost”, remain disappointed, according to Financial Times.