China’s slump | Mint

At the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, premier Li Keqiang announced a 5% gross domestic product expansion target for 2023. This is the lowest in many decades and modestly undershoots the 6%-odd figure that many observers were expecting. More than a strong recovery, it was 2022’s meek 3% expansion that had set the economy up for a statistical spring back. It’s possible Beijing is trying to be conservative and hoping to under-promise and over-deliver, especially after the big miss of 2022, for which growth was projected at 5.5%. Year after year, its growth figures tend to turn out suspiciously close to official forecasts, but last year was shock-ridden for China. A Chinese economy that was already suffering a realty crisis and slowing down got rattled by zero-covid lockdowns, supply disruptions and an export slump that would have been too huge to paper over. Its latest forecast might be an exercise in image management more than statistical calculations. By way of political rhetoric, Beijing has been assuring people of “common prosperity”. A loss of economic momentum could make that sound even more hollow.