China GDP targets may resume for 2021-25, state planner says

Name: What happened at the Chinese Communist Party’s major policy meeting, the fifth plenum?
Uploaded: 2020-10-30T12:30:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 5 s
Description: What happened at the Chinese Communist Party’s major policy meeting, the fifth plenum?

Ning Jizhe says the National Development and Reform Commission will propose ‘targets and specific indicators’ for the 14th five-year plan

Beijing decided in May not to set a specific annual economic growth target for this year due to the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus

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China’s state planning agency says it will submit economic targets in a draft outline of the 14th five-year plan. Photo: AP

Orange Wang

Published: 8:30pm, 30 Oct 2020Updated: 4:01pm, 10 Nov 2020

China may resume setting annual economic growth targets over the next five years after abandoning the practise in 2020, the country’s top economic planning agency said on Friday.

Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said the agency would propose “relevant quantitative targets and specific indicators” for economic activity in line with the decisions made at the Central Committee’s fifth plenum, which wrapped up on Thursday.

His comments suggest gross domestic product (GDP) growth will continue to be at the heart of Beijing’s economic strategy, despite recent emphasis on addressing imbalances and underdevelopment in the economy.

The commission plans to include economic targets in a draft outline of the 14th five-year plan, which will map out development goals for the period 2021-25, and wait for approval at next March’s National People’s Congress, Ning said.

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What happened at the Chinese Communist Party’s major policy meeting, the fifth plenum?

“Development is the foundation and key to solving all problems in our country, and the top priority of the Party in governing and revitalising the country,” Ning said at a press conference on Friday.