As in the last two years, China has once again set a growth target for its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2025 and wants it to reach around 5% this year.
The target was announced at the start of the “Two Sessions”, the main political event of the Chinese legislative year. The Two Sessions are annual meetings organized by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Assembly. The legislators’ terms last five years. The current term runs from 2023 to 2028.
At the opening ceremony of the annual session on Wednesday (5), China’s Premier Li Qiang made the traditional presentation of the government’s work report, which also includes the tasks and strategies drawn up for 2025. The session was attended by 2,893 deputies of China’s unicameral legislative body.
In line with recent documents and analyses by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the report sets the first and foremost task for 2025 as making domestic consumption “become the main driving force and anchor for economic growth.”
Among the measures to achieve this goal, the report Li presented mentions increasing employment and purchasing power, mainly by increasing the income of middle- and lower-income groups.
Another specific measure was the issuance of special Treasury bonds, the so-called “ultra-long” bonds, worth 300 billion yuan (around 41,3 billion), specifically to support consumer goods exchange programs.
In China, these types of bonds have maturities of more than 10 years and can be as long as 50 years. Bonds are essentially loans to the state, meaning that if an investor buys a bond, they will get their money back plus interest.
In this case, the Chinese government will issue bonds to raise money for programs that should offer discounts, subsidies or tax incentives for consumers to exchange old products for new ones.
The document also addressed guidelines for promoting consumption by foreigners in China, by “refining duty-free store policies to attract international consumers” and “developing international consumption centers in some Chinese cities.”
Rising numbers
As of 2022, China has set a target of creating more than 12 million jobs. The target for the urban unemployment rate will be 5.5% and the Consumer Price Index around 2%.
Last year and for the first time, China’s grain production reached 700 million tons, a figure that has been maintained as the target for this year.
The government report also details some policies to consolidate the country’s achievements in recent years in the fight against poverty. These include offering greater support to people relocating from inhospitable areas and advancing so-called East-West cooperation and encouraging the purchase of products from less developed areas.
In China, the greatest disparities in terms of regions occur between the east and west of the country, with the latter having a lower GDP per capita and a higher historical level of poverty. Western China is smaller, accounting for between 25 and 30% of the national population, and has more mountainous and desert regions.
The Chinese PM said that an analysis will be made of efforts to determine whether policies to consolidate and expand the fight against poverty have been effective in boosting rural revitalization.
In this case, the goal is to refine assistance policies for the post-transition period, which begins next year. After announcing the eradication of extreme poverty in the country by 2020, China determined a five-year transition period to consolidate poverty reduction policies, under the name of “rural revitalization”, which involves everything from improving transport infrastructure and connectivity, housing policies and expanding or improving public services such as education and health assistance.
The end of a five-year cycle
This year is the last of the 14th Five-Year Plan. These were the first five years after China achieved its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Although the government will prepare the next plan during this year, in August 2025, the third plenary session of the 20th Party Central Committee defined more than 300 goals aimed at the country’s “socialist modernization” by 2029.
This is the third session of the 14th term of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The session, which began today, runs until March 11. Each term of the NPC lasts five years. The 14th National People’s Congress has 2,929 deputies. In the current session – the third one – 2,893 deputies attended.
