ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China has set an economic growth target of around 5 per cent for the fiscal year 2023, as the country seeks to revive the world’s second-largest economy after a year of slow growth because of Covid-19 pandemic measures.
According to CNN, the new figure was released on Sunday by outward-bound Prime Minister Li Keqiang during the opening of the yearly gathering of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the legislature, as he delivered the government work report to nearly 3,000 top delegates at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
China’s economy staging a comeback
Li said China’s economy was staging a steady comeback, showing vast potential and momentum for further growth. He emphasised focusing on ensuring stable growth, employment and stability of prices amid worldwide inflation.
According to Li, the Chinese economy added more than 12 million jobs in the outgoing year, with the urban job unemployment rate falling to 5.5 per cent.
China also unveiled its military budget for the year 2023, which will jump by 7.2 per cent to roughly $224 billion, according to a draft budget report released alongside the NPC opening.
The military spending upsurge marks the second year in a row that the annual raise in military spending has exceeded 7 per cent and tops last year’s 7.1 per cent growth, amid rising global tensions and a regional arms race. Like other recent years, the figure remains well below the symbolically significant double-digit expansion.
Li’s work report said that the Chinese armed forces should deepen military training and preparedness across the board, develop new martial strategic guidance, devote greater vigour to training under combat conditions and make well-coordinated efforts to reinforce military work in all directions and domains.
China’s GDP target and military spending were among the most closely watched in the first day proceedings, with the country’s GDP target figure, in particular, being monitored as China emerged from its economically draining zero-Covid policy. The new figure appears uncertain against what some analysts had predicted could be a more robust aim in the coming year .
The NPC meeting in Beijing was a critical yearly political event that occurred alongside a gathering of China’s top-notched political advisory body, with the events together known as the Two Sessions.
This was the first Two Sessions since Chinese President Xi Jinping secured a norm-breaking third term in the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy in October last year. Xi is set to enter his third term as President, a largely ceremonial title, during the congress.
