China sets 2025 growth target at roughly 5%, defying tariff pressure

Li Qiangpremier

Domestically, the foundation for China's sustained economic recovery and growth is not strong enough,

the report said

We need to see a very broad-based recovery of employment, income as well as the property market before we can really see a change in consumption patterns and retail sales trend,

Yue Su, Principal Economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told AFP

We must strengthen ourselves to achieve world peace."

Another wrote

We worry that they will add another 10 percent and then another 10 percent,

said Dave Fong, who manufactures school bags, talking teddy bears, stationery and consumer electronics in China

Eswar Prasadthe fallout, former IMF official

With deflationary pressures becoming entrenched against the background of an unfavorable external environment... boosting domestic household consumption demand is a key priority,

said Eswar Prasad, trade policy professor at Cornell University and a former China director at the International Monetary Fund

An increasingly complex and severe external environment may exert a greater impact on China in areas such as trade, science, and technology,

the 32-page report said

President Xi Jinping has made it very clear that he wants to modernise China’s military by the year 2035 and a lot of that money will go towards military technology, better missiles, better submarines and missile surveillance technology,

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu said

Budget deficit ratio from 3 percent to 4 percent doesn’t seem much, but that’s the highest that has been set in three decades. So the government is committing to spending more,

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu said, reporting from Beijing

Further expanding the trade surplus is no longer a good strategy, so we need to rely on internal demand for growth,

said Andrew Xia, chief economist at Shangshan Capital Group

We also expect the authorities to adjust the budget by mid-year if the growth momentum is hit by trade disputes,

ANZ analysts said

It’s not a pivot from the previous industrial policy, but pursuing a more balanced" macroeconomic framework

Zhang said

For the first time, boosting consumption has been elevated to the top priority among 2025's major tasks, displacing technology from its usual leading position,

said Tilly Zhang, technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics

That's been super-successful in boosting spending on those types of goods,

said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China and Australia economics at Moody's Analytics

But outside of that, spending is still very weak,

he added, decrying a lack of detail on other consumer policies

A large part of China's economic growth last year was supported by exports, but the looming trade war with the United States has brought unpredictable risks to Chinese exports in 2025,

said Wang Kuo-chen, an economist at the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research in Taiwan

Since China’s domestic demand remains insufficient, they can only rely on boosting consumption to drive economic growth in 2025,

he told VOA by phone

The government knows it needs the private sector for innovation and job creation, but it also wants to maintain control at the same time,

Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA in an e-mail

China might actually see an opportunity to show that it can act more responsibly on certain global issues,

Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, told VOA by phone

As long as more capitals are poured into emerging industries such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, which are key sectors highlighted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the private sector as a whole will remain weak, and there won’t be sufficient domestic demand,

Wang said

China is willing to work with the international community to call for an equal and orderly multipolar world and an inclusive economic globalization,

he said during the hour-long remarks