China Sets GDP Target Around 5.5%

China announced a gross domestic product growth target of “around 5.5%” for 2022, as an annual parliamentary meeting gets underway.

Premier Li Keqiang revealed the figure in a speech on Saturday morning local time. It is not unusual for the official GDP target to be approximate, CNBC said.

Other economic targets Li announced, for employment and inflation, were the same as last year’s.

However, he said the deficit-to-GDP ratio would be 2.8% this year, lower than last year’s 3.2%. He expects fiscal revenue to grow in 2022, and that the government can use profits from state-owned enterprises, allowing a spending increase of more than 2 trillion yuan ($316.5b) in 2022 over 2021.

Total central government expenditures for the general public budget are expected to rise by 14.3% to 13.40 trillion yuan this year, China’s Ministry of Finance said in a separate report released Saturday about the national budget for the year. That includes a plan for a 7.1% increase in defense spending.

China will target an unemployment rate in cities of “no more than 5.5%” and a consumer price index of “around 3%,” according to Li. He added the country plans to add “over 11 million new urban jobs” — also the same figure as last year.

“A comprehensive analysis of evolving dynamics at home and abroad indicates that this year our country will encounter many more risks and challenges, and we must keep pushing to overcome them,” he said, according to an official English-language version of his remarks. “The harder things get, the more confident we must be, and the more solid steps we must take to deliver outcomes.”

Economists widely expected the GDP target to be set at about 5% or slightly higher. They want details about stimulus plans for an economy that has slowed significantly.

A target of “around 5.5%” GDP growth comes on the high end of those expectations. In a separate report Saturday, the national economic planning agency said “achieving this goal will require arduous efforts.”