China’s export powerhouse Guangdong aims for lower growth target in 2020 after trade war hit year

China’s Guangdong province aims for 6.0 per cent GDP growth in 2020, but the export engine of the economy foregoes specific trade target

Guangdong is China’s richest province and known for being home to many manufacturing companies

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Employees work on the production line of a robot vacuum cleaner factory of Matsutek in Shenzhen, China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:35pm, 14 Jan 2020Updated: 7:05pm, 14 Jan 2020

Guangdong, China’s exporting powerhouse, has set a lower growth target of 6.0 per cent for 2020 and forgone a specific target for trade growth, after battling trade war headwinds throughout 2019.

China’s richest province, which includes the Pearl River Delta, has an economy on a par with South Korea’s in terms of nominal size, and reported a 6.3 per cent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) last year, a slowdown from 6.8 per cent in 2018.

Guangdong’s trade reported a rare decline of 0.3 per cent from a year earlier, missing the government’s target of a 3.0 per cent increase, according to the provincial government report delivered at a local parliamentary session on Tuesday.

Instead of setting a target for trade growth for 2020, Guangdong’s provincial government now says it will simply hope for “positive growth” in the sector.

Guangdong's slump casts another shadow China's economy, given that the province had led national growth for more than 30 years. In the first three quarters, the national growth slowed to 6.2 per cent – only slightly below growth in Guangdong for the full year.

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