China targets 7.5% GDP growth

The Chinese government announced Tuesday that its GDP growth target will remain around 7.5 percent this year to leave room for economic restructuring. The target is intended to help create jobs and improve people's well-being, Premier Wen Jiabao said while delivering his last government work report to the opening session of 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature. This marks the second consecutive year for the world's second-largest economy to target 7.5-percent growth. In 2012, the government cut its growth forecast from 8 percent for the first time in eight years. Wen warned of the profound and persisting impact of the global financial crisis, as well as the unstable recovery of the world economy, as major threats to China's economic growth. However, the premier cited the considerably increased capacity of China's manufacturing industry, significantly improved infrastructure, a high savings rate and a large workforce as favorable factors that will sustain development. "In light of comprehensive considerations, we deem it necessary and appropriate to set this year's target for economic growth at 7.5 percent, a goal that we will have to work hard to attain," Wen told nearly 3,000 national legislators attending the NPC session. "We must maintain a proper level of economic growth in order to provide necessary conditions for creating jobs and improving people's well-being. We must ensure that economic growth is in accordance with the potential economic growth rate," Wen said. China's economic growth eased further to a 13-year low of 7.8 percent in 2012 from 9.3 percent in 2011 and 10.3 percent in 2010. The country's GDP stood at 51.9 trillion yuan (about 8.3 trillion U.S. dollars) last year. Earlier in 2011, the government announced that it would target annual GDP growth of 7 percent from 2011 to 2015. Maintaining a slower growth target is intended to shift the government's focus toward accelerating the change of China's growth model restructuring the economy and improving the quality and performance of economic growth so as to promote sustained and healthy economic development, the premier noted.