China's robust GDP growth target relatively high: WSJ

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- By setting its economic growth target at around 5.5 percent in 2022, China has set "a relatively high bar" amid a litany of challenges at home and abroad and paved the way for more stimulus measures in the coming months, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

Economists say it is actually a much heavier lift than China's 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) target, given last year's COVID-related statistical distortions and the mounting headwinds facing China, said the article.

On the monetary policy front, the article said that China's central bank could lower key interest rates further, "with inflation less of a problem in China than it is in the West."

"The government policy support for growth will have to be stronger than last year," Bert Hofman, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, was quoted as saying.

China will make a potential shift "toward pouring more investment into green energy, which would help the country achieve its longer-term climate goals, while lifting short-term GDP," Iris Pang, chief China economist at ING Bank, was quoted as saying.