China sets 2021 economic growth target at over 6%

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday announced that the country has set a GDP growth target of more than 6% for 2021.

Li was speaking at the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary event, in Beijing.

The world’s second-biggest economy posted a 2.3% growth in 2020, the only major economy to post an expansion in a pandemic-hit year.

The country had refrained from setting a specific economic growth target for 2020 amid the coronavirus outbreak, which started in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan.

China’s official target for 2021 is more conservative compared with economists’ consensus forecast of an 8.4% GDP growth, based on data compiled by Spain-based research firm FocusEconomics.

At the NPC meeting, legislators will deliberate on China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the long-range objectives through to 2035.

China will make concrete efforts to achieve peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, according to official Xinhua news agency, citing to a government work report submitted Friday to the national legislature for deliberation.

Additional reporting by Pearl Bantillo

Visit the ICIS Coronavirus topic page for analysis of the impact on chemical markets and links to latest news.