China sets 2025 GDP growth target at around 5%, projecting confidence in economy

(Graphic/Global Times)

China on Wednesday set a growth target of around 5 percent for its economy in 2025, which remains the same as last year's goal, indicating top policymakers' solid confidence in the stable growth of the world's second-largest economy despite rising global risks and challenges.

The annual official growth target was unveiled in the Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Qiang to the national legislature, which began its annual session on Wednesday morning.

In addition to the GDP growth target, the Government Work Report also contained a slew of other targets. The deficit-to-GDP ratio, another closely watched figure, was set at around 4 percent for 2025. The country has set the surveyed urban unemployment rate at around 5.5 percent for 2025, while the CPI is set at around 2 percent in 2025.

China plans to issue 4.4 trillion yuan (about $613.67 billion) of local government special-purpose bonds in 2025, an increase of 500 billion yuan over last year, according to the Government Work Report.

For context, in 2024, China's GDP grew by 5 percent, surpassing 130 trillion yuan ($17.82 trillion) for the first time, successfully achieving key economic and social development goals.

"At a time of rising uncertainties in the external environment and growing challenges, achieving such a growth target will be no small feat. However, China still possesses many comparative advantages, along with a series of forthcoming macro-level incremental policies, to ensure that the goal will be achieved," Yu Miaojie, the president of Liaoning University and a deputy to the NPC, told the Global Times.

Yu noted that the growth target of around 5 percent is in line with China's potential economic growth rate, and setting such a goal is necessary to help unleash the potential of China's economic development. "I am fully confident about China's economic growth," he said.

China's official growth target for 2025 also exceeded projections made by some international organizations. In December, the World Bank raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2025 to 4.5 percent from its previous forecast of 4.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the growth target is in line with some foreign financial institutions' expectations. In a research note shared with the Global Times ahead of the release of the official target, researchers at Standard Chartered, a UK-based bank, said that they expected a growth target of about 5 percent for 2025, noting that local two sessions have revealed growth targets between 4.5 percent and 7 percent, resulting in a weighted average growth target of 5.3 percent.