China’s top leaders Tuesday set an ambitious target for economic growth but signaled only modest stimulus measures, not the aggressive support for China’s domestic economy that many analysts believe is necessary to halt a steep slide in the housing market and ease consumer malaise and investor wariness.
Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No. 2 official, after Xi Jinping, said in his report to the annual session of the legislature that the government would seek economic growth of "around 5%.” That is the same target that China’s leadership set for last year, when official statistics ended up showing that the country’s gross domestic product grew 5.2%.
The country’s program for state spending showed little change. Li said that the central government’s deficit would be set at 3% of economic output, but that the government was ready to issue another $140 billion worth of bonds to pay for unspecified projects of national importance. The more the government borrows, the more it can spend on initiatives that could boost the economy.
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