China’s lowest growth target in decades signals new era of caution

The Financial Times has written an article: ''China’s lowest growth target in decades signals new era of caution.''

It writes, ''China’s political leadership set a gloomy projection for growth in the world’s second-largest economy this weekend, despite the buzz of optimism following three years of closures during the coronavirus pandemic.''

The piece notes that policymakers at the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing set a growth target of just 5 per cent for 2023, the lowest in decades and trailing last year’s Covid-era figure of 5.5 per cent, which it failed to reach.

The FT says that, ''faced with a rolling property crisis, falling exports as global interest rates rise and the hangover from zero-Covid restrictions, policymakers are less concerned about a high target — a figure that has become closely watched after two decades of consistent outperformance — than with the threat of another disappointing reading.''Overall, quoting Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University, the FT portrays a government that was taking ''a very cautious approach in the face of a range of uncertainties.”

Meanwhile, Analysts see possible China RRR cut coming.