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China GDP: Beijing urged to do more to achieve 5 per cent economic growth amid capital flight risks
- Economists point to the impact of the Shanghai lockdown, war in Ukraine and US rate increases and call for stronger measures to boost growth
- Coronavirus controls in the country’s biggest financial hub are expected to make it harder to hit the annual target of ‘around 5.5 per cent’
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China should take forceful measures to raise economic growth above 5 per cent in the second quarter, while remaining on high alert for possible capital outflows, policy advisers said.
China’s economy grew by 4.8 per cent in the first quarter, but lockdowns in major cities such as Shanghai are taking an increasing toll on the economy.
The weeks-long lockdown in the country’s key commercial and logistical hub is expected to eat into second-quarter growth, challenging Beijing’s already ambitious growth target of “around 5.5 per cent” this year.
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“First-quarter growth failed to pass 5 per cent as we had expected, mainly because most economic indicators slowed down in March,” Wang Yiming, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, told an economic forum in Beijing on Sunday.
It is very important that we can effectively contain the pandemic, especially by early May
Coronavirus controls, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the US Federal Reserve’s rate increases will continue to put downward pressure on the economy in the coming months, he said.
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