Four months ago, China set an official target of 7.5% for the country’s economic growth. Now, the finance minister has just announced that he expects the economy to grow 7% this year. Certainly, this is raising the ire of many and putting China’s financial stability into question.
Not only was the official announcement of the intended 7.5% growth mad during a Communist Party parliamentary meeting in March, but the target goal is usually offered with a conservative number so that the country may actually exceed that prediction.
China’s economy saw a 7.8% growth in 2012, which was actually the worst they had done in 14 years. The first quarter growth for this year has slowed to 7.7%.
As Lou Jiwei recently told reporters during a strategic and economic dialogue between China and the US last week, “Our expected GDP growth rate this year is seven per cent. Of course, it won’t be a big problem for us if we achieve growth of seven per cent or 6.5 per cent.”