China achieves 2019 economic growth goal of 6-6.5%: official

China’s economic growth in 2019 met the government’s target thanks to supportive policies and the acceleration of the domestic economic transformation, despite downward pressure persisting amid uncertainties in the global market because of trade tensions with the US, experts said on Sunday.

China will achieve its GDP growth target of 6-6.5 percent in 2019, Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, told a forum over the weekend.

China’s economic growth has always remained within a reasonable range, Ning said. The nation’s economic growth rate is the highest among economies of more than $1 trillion.

The remarks came as Chinese trade negotiators were scheduled to set off to the US on Monday for the planned signing of a phase one trade deal in Washington.

China is scheduled to reveal the fourth-quarter and full-year GDP rates for 2019 on Friday.

Although China’s economic development faced downward pressure in 2019 due to sluggish market demand across the globe, growth was within the target range, Liu Xuezhi, a senior economist at the Bank of Communications, told the Global Times on Sunday.

China’s GDP growth for 2019 was 6.1 percent and the growth in the fourth quarter was likely to have been 6 percent, remaining the same as the third quarter, Liu estimated.

Apart from uncertainties in the world market, Liu attributed the slowdown to some domestic factors, such as “the declining growth of manufacturing, labor-intensive and highenergy consumption industries as well as the country’s economic structural adjustment.”

The signing of the phase one trade deal with the US will help ease some of the negative impact on the global market that will influence China’s economic development in 2020, Liu said.