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China Sidesteps GDP Growth Focus to Target Jobs, Prices

China’s Communist party leaders say they will be concentrating their efforts on finding the ‘best possible’ results instead of growth this year


Voith compoments factory in Shanghai
Employees work on the production line of vehicle components at a Voith factory in Shanghai, China. Photo: Reuters

 

China’s rulers sidestepped the issue of GDP growth for the rest of the year in their latest statement of intent to instead state they will be concentrating on “employment, prices and results.” 

State media, reporting after a high-level meeting of the ruling Communist Party, said China should “stabilise employment and prices, maintain economic operations within a reasonable range, and strive to achieve the best possible results” for the second half of 2022.

Xinhua news agency was reporting on a meeting of the 25-member Politburo chaired by President Xi Jinping which had met to assess the economy.

 

Also on AF: IMF Urges China Rethink on Zero-Covid, Property Crisis

 

The world’s second-largest economy narrowly avoided contracting in the second quarter due to widespread Covid-19 lockdowns. Analysts said Beijing’s full-year growth target of around 5.5% had been looking increasingly unattainable. China last missed its growth target in 2015.

First-half gross domestic product grew only 2.5% from a year earlier, pointing to huge pressure in the second half, amid fears of a global recession, uncertainties from the Ukraine war and worries of recurring Covid lockdowns.

After an April Politburo meeting, state media reported that China will “work hard to realise the annual economic and social development targets.”

On June 22, Xi, at the opening of a BRICS forum, said China would take more measures to achieve its annual economic goals while minimising the impact of its Covid-19 prevention and control measures as much as possible.

But during an inspection tour in the central city of Wuhan on June 28, Xi said China will “strive to reach a relatively good level of the economic development this year.”

Similarly, last week, Premier Li Keqiang said at the World Economic Forum China will “strive for relatively good results in economic development for the whole year.” 

 

China Communist Party Congress

Xinhua said on Thursday that large provinces must take the lead in growing China’s economy. 

“The upshot is that the Politburo meeting reinforces our view that stimulus will remain relatively restrained this year and that the economy will continue to operate well below potential over the coming quarters,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

Full-year GDP growth is expected to reach 4.0%, according to a Reuters poll of economists this month.

To stabilise the economy, authorities have deepened tax credit rebates, accelerated local government special bond issuances to buoy infrastructure investments, and lowered car purchase taxes. 

The economic pressures coincide with a once-in-five-years Communist Party Congress this autumn, where Xi is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term. 

While much of the rest of the world has been trying to live with the virus, Xinhua reported after the Politburo meeting that China would stick to the “dynamic zero-Covid” policy.

“Persistence is victory,” Xinhua said. 

 

China’s Struggling Property Sector

With China’s property market lurching from one crisis to another, developers being short on liquidity and laden with debt, and buyers launching nationwide mortgage boycotts, the country’s top leaders vowed to stabilise the real estate and financial sectors. 

Local governments must ensure the delivery of property projects, should properly resolve risks of some rural banks, and crack down on financial crimes, Xinhua reported. 

The property market poses huge risks to China’s economy systematically, said Liu Ligang, Asia-Pacific head of economic analysis at Citi Global Wealth Management.

“The Politburo asked local governments to ensure the delivery of houses, but if major property developers defaulted generally, I am afraid it is not a problem that local governments can resolve,” Liu said. 

“It may become a nationwide problem which will impact the country’s financial system severely.”  

 

  • Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara

 

Read more:

Xi Targets China’s ‘Unbalanced’ Growth Over Next Five Years

China Growth Plunged Last Quarter as Headwinds Cloud Outlook

China Growth Slumps to One-Year Low on Power, Property Drags

 

 

Sean O'Meara

Sean O'Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.