China wants to boost economic growth by at least 6 percent this year. This means the target is less than the 8 percent growth rate set by economists At first He had in mind.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang unveiled his economic plans for this year at the opening of the annual Chinese People’s Congress in Beijing. The politician said he aims to achieve at least 6% Chinese economic growth.
Positive about the economic recovery
The prime minister was generally positive about China’s post-pandemic economic recovery, but also pointed to weaknesses such as barriers to consumer spending, tough conditions for small businesses, and mounting pressure to maintain employment stability. In the 2020 epidemic year, the Chinese economy grew by 2.3 percent. This made the Asian country the only major economy that managed to grow in 2020.
Moreover, the Prime Minister has also looked towards employment. He wants to keep the unemployment rate in cities limited at 5.5 percent, among other things, by creating 11 million new jobs. This should allow the country to do the same in 2019. Last year, 9 million new jobs were added.
Relationship with the United States
Keqiang also spoke about the relationship with the United States during his speech. He says he wants to “strengthen mutually beneficial trade relations with the United States on the basis of equality and respect.” He did not give enough details. He also said that his country would speed up free trade negotiations with Japan and South Korea and would actively consider joining the free trade bloc CPTPP, the former Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). At the end of January, the UK indicated that it would also like to join CPTPP.
Finally, China announced the budget for the military through a note from the Ministry of Finance. The military can count on an additional 6.8% budget in 2021. It’s about 1,355.34 billion yuan ($ 209 billion). Only in the United States is more being spent on defense. (MAh)
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