Chinese Government "This Year's Economic Growth Target Around 5%... Defense Budget Increased by 7.2%"

China has set its gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for this year at around 5.0%, the same as last year.

Major foreign media reported that Li Chang, Premier of the State Council of China, included this in the government work report to be announced at the opening ceremony of the National People's Congress (NPC) held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This aligns with previous market expectations but is slightly lower than the forecast of 5.3% by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading Chinese think tank.

[Image source= Xinhua News Agency]

China's growth target for this year is the same as last year for the second consecutive year and is the lowest in history except for 1991 (4.5%). China set a growth target of around 5.0% last year, the first year of the "With-COVID" policy, and the actual growth rate recorded was 5.2%.

The Chinese government also decided to increase the national defense budget by 7.2% compared to the previous year. This rate is the same as last year's increase (7.2%) and slightly exceeds the increases in previous years, such as 6.8% in 2021 and 7.1% in 2022.

This year’s fiscal deficit target is set at 3.0% of GDP, with a deficit budget of 4.06 trillion yuan (approximately 749.9226 trillion won). This is also the same as last year’s figure (3.0%) but significantly lower than last year’s actual fiscal deficit rate of 3.8%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.