China will target 8pc growth in 2010’

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
‘BEIJING: China will target eight per cent economic growth next year as the government maintain’s pro-growth policies aimed at fighting the global turn-down, a top minister said on Monday.

“Based on the central government’s target for around eight percent economic growth, we’re aiming for around 11 per cent growth in industrial output,” Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said in a webcast.

“The recovery base has been gradually consolidated and the micro-economic policies will still be in place to boost the economy next year.”

China has targeted around eight per cent economic growth each year since 2005, but the economy has mostly steamed ahead at a pace much faster than the target until the financial crisis hit in late 2008.

Li further warned against “blind optimism” as the industrial recovery was mainly supported by government investment and bank loans rather than private investment, he said in the webcast on his ministry’s website. “The growth pace is necessary, achievable and appropriate. We will not set the target too high,” he said.

China’s economy could witness growth of more than 10 per cent year-on-year in the last three months of 2009, with full year growth of around 8.5 per cent, Yu Bin, a top economist at the cabinet’s State Council Developmental Research Centre, said last month.

China could also maintain double-digit growth next year, Yu told Xinhua news agency, but the economy faced several challenges, including inflation linked to a vigorous government stimulus package and the appreciation of the yuan.

China’s economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the third quarter the fastest pace in a year after expanding by 7.9 per cent in the second quarter and 6.1 per cent in the first three months, the slowest pace in more than a decade.