A first: Virus-hit China scraps GDP growth target for this yr
FUTURE TENSE Country’s economy shrank 6.8% in first quarter of 2020 compared with a year earlier
For the first time, China has decided against officially setting a GDP growth target, taking into account the economic uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was made known in a government work report released by the country’s Premier Li Keqiang on Friday.
Li read out the report at the launch of the annual summit of the National People’s Congress (NPC) - China’s parliament - in Beijing on Friday, pledging government support to help the pandemic-hit economy and setting out broad economic goals for the rest of the year.
China’s economy shrank 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with a year earlier, as the coronavirus spread from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where it emerged late last year.
“We have not set a specific target for economic growth this year. This is because our country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development, due to the great uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment,” Li was quoted as saying by official media while reading out the work report at the Great Hall of the People on Friday morning.
According to the report, China is targeting a 2020 budget deficit of at least 3.6% of the GDP, above last year’s 2.8%, and fixed the quota on local government special bond issuance at 3.75 trillion yuan ($527 billion), up from 2.15 trillion yuan.
In a draft budget report submitted to the NPC, the government set a 6.6% growth rate for its defence budget, lower than the 7.5% rise in 2019, an outlay that’s closely followed globally.
The proposed defence budget stands at 1.268tn yuan ($178bn), according to the draft budget.
WILD ANIMAL TRADE TO INVITE PUNISHMENTS The Chinese government has decided that it will severely punish the illegal hunting and trading of wild animals, it said in its government work report that was issued on Friday.
China is looking to implement a nationwide ban imposed in January as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been blamed on a seafood market in Wuhan that is believed to have sold wild animals such as bats and pangolins, and China has promised new legislation to make the ban permanent.
Wuhan, Shanghai and several other cities in the country have already banned wild animal consumption, and several provinces have also issued action plans to curb hunting, breeding and trafficking.
China has reported 4,634 deaths among 82,971 cases since the virus was first detected late last year in Wuhan.