China confident of achieving 7.5 % GDP target: Minister

Expects recovery of the world economy and growth of emerging markets

China today expressed confidence over achieving its GDP target of 7.5 % this year, citing the expected recovery of the world economy and strong fundamentals of emerging markets.

 

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, speaking at a media briefing on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session, said he was confident that China will achieve the moderate official target of 7.5 % GDP this year.

 

He said China, the world's second largest economy, expects the world economy to recover, especially the developed countries and demand for these countries to grow. "This is good news for China."

 

Referring to the slowdown in emerging economies, including China and India, Gao said the slowdown was due to various economic reasons.

 

"We think the fundamentals of these economies are very good. So they are able to overcome the challenges and gradually recover this year," he said.

 

Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Wednesday set this year's economic growth target at 7.5 %, the same as last year's target and slightly lower than the 7.7 % actual growth in 2013.

 

China's foreign trade may have crossed a major milestone emerging as the world's largest last year, overtaking the US, but it need not necessarily be the strongest because of the low value addition of its export goods, Gao said.

 

Last year, China's total exports and imports touched $ 4.16 trillion against United States' $ 3.91 trillion, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

 

China's last year trade included $ 2.21 trillion exports and $ 1.95 trillion dollars in imports, Gao said.

 

China missed the milestone in 2012 as the US remained world's biggest trader in merchandise, with imports and exports totalling more than $ 3.88 trillion.

 

China closely followed, with merchandise trade totalling almost $ 3.87 trillion in 2012, according to the WTO.

 

Gao said it is indeed a great achievement but China has to improve further.

 

"There is also one fact that we should take note, we are the biggest trading nation but not the strongest. China's exported goods have low added value. We have very huge plants. Our way of sales is rather backward," he said.

 

China has also emerged as the biggest trading partner of 120 nations, Gao said, adding that it also contributed heavily to world trade through nearly $ two trillion dollars of imports.

 

China's foreign trade resulted in 700 million jobs, he said.