Post-pandemic: President Xi says China clocked nearly 5% GDP growth in 2024
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With US President-elect Donald Trump potentially reopening the COVID-19 wounds in 2025, and his plans to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports, President Xi Jinping has reassured his people that a recovering China is regaining its economic power and its 2024 GDP growth has hit the target of nearly 5 percent.
China may now set a 2025 growth target roughly similar to this year’s, as its top leaders signaled in December to embrace fresh stimulus measures to help the economy counter any impact from potential increases in US tariffs.
Trump, who had dubbed the COVID-19-causing virus as “Chinese virus” in 2020, will return to the White House as the United States’ 47th President on January 20, 2025.
While precise data about China’s GDP growth in 2024 is not yet available, Xi Jinping’s revelation capped off a year of economic uncertainty. The growth goal was initially seen as a target without a plan, the media reported on Tuesday.
An official GDP growth target would only be revealed in March when annual legislative sessions of the Chinese Communist Party-controlled parliament are held.
President Jinping said China’s GDP growth is likely to be nearly 5 percent for the entire year 2024, indicating that the world’s second-largest economy, which lost steam after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, is on track to meet its official target.
China’s economy was “overall stable and progressing amid stability,” he said at a New Year event on Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Risks in key areas were effectively addressed, while employment and prices remained steady, Xi said.
The growth outlook for 2024 improved after policymakers rolled out a slew of stimulus steps in late September, with economists now forecasting an expansion of 4.8 percent GDP growth this year.
During the New Year’s Eve remarks to the nation’s top political advisory body, Xi indicated that support for the economy will continue into 2025, reiterating a call to adopt more proactive macroeconomic policies.
Officials at key meetings in December vowed to use greater public borrowing and spending as well as monetary easing to spur growth in 2025, seeking to boost confidence. They endorsed the first shift in monetary policy stance in 14 years to a “moderately loose” one.
However, the Chinese economy is still plagued by weak domestic demand and an uncertain outlook for exports, a key growth driver in 2024. Deflation may persist in 2025 as well, while the property market is still slumping.
Beijing’s initial stimulus in 2025 may fall short of what is required to stem the downward spiral in prices, but officials may step up support later when growth falters just as they did this year.
Earlier, Prime Minister Li Qiang also revealed China’s improving growth rate to lift sentiment. The Chinese economy grew 5.2 percent in 2023, he said in Davos in January 2024, while highlighting the fact that China did not resort to massive stimulus.
