China's ambitious targets

Growth and inflation likely to undershoot

At the annual National People’s Congress in China, its leaders announce macroeconomic targets for the coming year. The days when the entire Chinese economy could be managed to meet those targets are likely long gone, however. This is why the announcement of the target of 5 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP), as well as a 3 per cent target for inflation in the ongoing year, has been met with general disbelief. Nominal growth of 8 per cent appears particularly hard to achieve when the economy expanded by a mere 4.6 per cent last year in nominal terms.