Outlook difficult to predict,…

Outlook difficult to predict, says Premier Li, East Asia News & Top

The Straits Times | 2020-05-22 22:07

He cites uncertainty over virus, global trade situation for not giving China's growth target China has for the first time dropped an economic growth target for the year, as it carefully comes out of a nationwide freeze after four months of battling the coronavirus. As expected by economists, Beijing did not announce a gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure at the start of its delayed annual national legislature meeting, which kicked off yesterday. The reason cited by Premier Li Keqiang, when he presented his work report at the Great Hall of the People, is that China "will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development, due to the great uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment". Before Covid-19 seized the country in January, economists had expected Beijing to set a GDP growth target of around 6 per cent for this …