China sets economic guidelines for 2022
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang at the National People's Congress, March 5, 2022. REUTERS - CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
As every year, the National People's Congress met in plenary session in Beijing.
In front of some 3,000 deputies, Prime Minister Li Keqiang set the country's main economic guidelines for 2022.
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China is aiming for growth of around 5.5% this year.
Which would be the weakest pace for the Middle Kingdom since the early 1990s, except for 2020 when the economy was swept away by the pandemic.
And yet, “
reaching this goal will require arduous efforts
,” Li Keqiang warned.
The Prime Minister points in particular to sluggish consumption and disruptions in supply chains, all in an economic situation that he describes as “
volatile, difficult and uncertain
”.
In this context, Beijing intends to support, through tax measures, SMEs and auto-entrepreneurs, its main sources of employment.
China has thus set itself the objective of creating 11 million jobs this year.
A figure difficult to put into perspective: it does not provide information on the number of jobs lost due to the crisis.
Objective: a deficit of 2.8% of GDP
Beijing also expects an increase in the unemployment rate, which should not, however, exceed 5.5%.
For city dwellers in any case, the only ones to be taken into account in this indicator.
As for the budget, China intends to reduce its deficit to 2.8% of GDP after having widened it to 3.2% during the post-Covid recovery.
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China
Xi Jinping