Loading containers in the Chinese port of Lien-jün-kang. Illustrative photo.
Beijing – The Chinese government has set this year's target for the growth of the Chinese economy at around five percent. This is according to a government report released at the opening of the session of the Chinese Parliament. The target for last year was roughly 5.5 percent, but the economy grew by only three percent last year, Reuters wrote.
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China is the second largest economy in the world after the United States. Economic activity in China was hampered last year by strict measures against the spread of the coronavirus. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to three percent last year from more than eight percent the year before.
If 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic struck, is not taken into account, then last year's growth of the Chinese economy is almost the weakest in half a century. According to the media, the Chinese economy last achieved a worse result in 1976, when the GDP fell.
The government set this year's target for inflation at around three percent, so it left it at last year's level. Consumer prices in China rose by two percent last year. According to the government, the budget deficit should amount to roughly three percent of GDP this year, Reuters wrote.
