China aims 5% GDP growth target for next five years

At a time, nations are still clueless about their economic future, china’s policymakers are close to setting an average annual economic growth target of around 5 per cent for the next five years.

A Reuters report says a blueprint for china’s five-year plan including key objectives for the next 15 years has already been laid out at last week’s meeting.

The plans include a goal to turn China into a "high income" nation by 2025 and advance it to a moderately developed nation by 2035.

This implies Chinese citizens will be earning more than $20,000 per person in the next 15 years.

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China’s per capita income was $10,410 in 2019 and the world bank defines “high income” countries as those with per capita gross national income of above $12,535.

However, this target made for the 14th five-year plan would be more a flexible one. The target has also taken into account external risks caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and trade wars and other rifts with the United States, the largest economy in the world. The 

Chinese government is still in a mode of drafting detailed economic and social development goals under its five-year plan which are being guided by the top communist party leaders.

Analysts also maintain the world's second-largest economy China would need to grow real GDP by about 3.9 per cent per year between 2021 and 2025 to reach the “high income” threshold by 2025 which will also be needed to be maintained at least 4.7 per cent annual average GDP growth in 2021-35 to double real GDP by 2035.

Experts have time and again pointed out that sustaining stable growth is vital for China to bypass the “middle-income trap”, in which the economy stagnates at middle-income levels and a more flexible target could help offset rising external uncertainties caused by the pandemic and tensions with the united states.

According to current predictions China’s GDP is forecast to grow just over 2 per cent this year, its weakest pace in 44 years and likely knocking its average annual growth for 2016-2020 to below its target of more than 6.5 per cent. China dropped its annual GDP target in 2020 for the first time since 2002 because of the uncertainty caused by covid-19.