Economy

China sets 8% target for 2010 economic growth

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-05 09:06

BEIJING -?China expects its economy to grow around 8 percent in 2010 from a year earlier, says a report to be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the annual parliament session Friday.

Setting the 8-percent target mainly "aims at ensuring the quality of economic growth, focusing on transformation of economic development pattern and adjustment of economic structure," says the report distributed to media before the opening of the 3rd Session of the 11th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

The increase of consumer price index, a main gauge of the country's inflation, will be held around 3 percent, it says.

Although the development environment this year may be better than 2009, China "will still face a complicated situation," reads the report.

The year of 2010 will be a "crucial but complicated" year for China's economic development as the country will continue fighting against the global financial crisis while maintaining a stable and comparatively fast economic growth and the accelerating transformation of growth pattern, according to the report.

As the first country emerging from the global economic downturn, China's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 8.7 percent in 2009 from a year earlier, above the 8-percent target the government set at the beginning of last year.

China's quarterly economic growth accelerated as the government's economic stimulus package started to pay off. The national economy rose 6.2 percent in the first quarter last year, 7.9 percent in the second quarter, 9.1 percent in the third and 10.7 percent in the fourth.

China to keep yuan 'basically stable'

China will keep the exchange rate of its currency yuan "basically stable" at an "appropriate and balanced" level, according to a government work report to be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the parliament's annual session Friday.

The country will also continue to improve the mechanism for setting the yuan exchange rate, it says.

China to continue 'proactive fiscal policy, moderately easy monetary policy'

China will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy in 2010, says a government work report to be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the parliament's annual session Friday.

"We need to maintain continuity and stability in our policies while constantly making them better-targeted and more flexible as circumstances and conditions change," reads the report, distributed to the media before the opening of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC).

The report says China will not only "maintain sufficient policy intensity and consolidate the momentum of the economic turnaround," but also need to accelerate economic restructuring and make substantive progress in transforming the pattern of economic development.

In addition, China also needs to manage inflation expectations well and keep the overall level of prices stable, the report says.