當年今日
關於我們

Beijing won’t set economic target for 2021, says analyst

蘋果日報 2020/12/18 05:18


China’s Communist Party may not propose a specific growth target for 2021 during its annual economic summit this week, analysts say, citing the year-long pandemic, which has significantly hampered the global economy.
The party could adopt a more conservative approach in organizing its plans for the next 12 months, after the country struggled under the scourge of the coronavirus nationwide during a year that was previously targeted to register gross domestic product growth of 6%.
That target was set at last year’s Central Economic Work Conference. The meeting is convened by the party’s 204-member Central Committee, typically during the second or third week of December every year, and sets the national agenda for the country’s financial and banking sectors for the following year.
An analyst at Sinolink Securities, Duan Xiaole, said that since China’s economic base had been dragged down by the pandemic, growth in 2021 was expected to reach 8% to 9%. He suggested that such a growth rate was neither sustainable nor meaningful, and therefore a specific growth target might not be proposed.
In other analyses, it is believed that this year’s conference will focus on introducing supply-side policies to increase productivity, as well as demand-side policies brought up by authorities last week, which will serve to encourage domestic consumption.
The supply-side structural reform was one of the top objectives introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015.
Duan believed that the conference would, while focusing on short-term economic work, also pay attention to long-term issues, including financial instability caused by excessive liquidity among global currencies, although he claimed that China did not over-issue the renminbi.
Another long-term focus that would concern the central government was how to construct a new pattern of economic development. Duan said the effort would consist of three pillars: bolstering domestic demand through internal consumption, cultivating technological innovation and developing a green economy.
In relation to the third pillar, Xi pledged in September this year at the yearly United Nations General Assembly meeting to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 to counter climate change.
As Beijing this year had implemented a series of emergency economic measures, analysts also predicted that local governments would gradually reduce the issuance of debt in 2021 in attempts to contain next year’s fiscal deficit rate at 3%.
Click here for Chinese version
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE
To download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play