FILE PHOTO: People walk past an office and commercial complex in Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD), China March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
January 21, 2022
BEIJING (Reuters) -China will be able to achieve economic growth of around 5.5% in 2022, Zhu Guangyao, an adviser to China’s cabinet, said on Friday.
Zhu told a briefing that China’s potential economic growth rate is estimated at 5-6%.
The Chinese economy, which cooled over the course of last year, faces multiple headwinds in 2022, including persistent property weakness and a fresh challenge from the local spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Li Yang, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think tank, said China has policy space to support the economy.
China’s central cut its benchmark lending rates on Thursday to prop up the slowing economy, after data earlier in the week pointed to a darkening outlook for the troubled property sector.
Expected interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve could have a very big market impact, Zhu said, adding that the United States should strengthen its policy coordination with developing countries.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Mark Heinrich)
