Economy worse off than in 2020, says premier

Reducing rising unemployment rate a priority

“The meeting was not intended to announce more policy measures but instead to strengthen the consensus.” Bruce Pang

BEIJING: China’s economy is in some respects faring worse than in 2020 when the pandemic first emerged, premier Li Keqiang says, urging efforts to reduce a soaring unemployment rate.

“Economic indicators in China have fallen significantly, and difficulties in some aspects and to a certain extent are greater than when the epidemic hit us severely in 2020,” Li said at an emergency meeting with thousands of representatives from local governments, state-owned companies and financial firms on stabilising the economy.

China’s full-year growth in 2020 was 2.2%. The bearish comments weighed on stocks, with the CSI 300 Index dropping almost 1% in early trading to lead losses in Asia.

China’s 10-year government bond yields extended their decline for a fourth day to 2.75%.

Li’s warnings add to expectations that Beijing may admit to missing its gross domestic product (GDP) target by a large margin this year, as it keeps its focus on controlling Covid19 infections through stringent controls.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast GDP will grow 4.5% this year, well below the government’s target of about 5.5%.

The premier called on officials to ensure unemployment falls and the economy “operates in a reasonable range” in the second quarter of this year, state media cited him as saying.

The nation’s surveyed jobless rate climbed to 6.1% in April, the highest since February 2020. Official data for April showed industrial output contracting for the first time since 2020.

“The economy is at its most grim moment since the second quarter of 2020,” said Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance Securities Hong Kong Ltd

“The meeting was not intended to announce more policy measures but instead to strengthen the consensus, flesh out the details and urge the implementation of policies to ensure all existing policies are taking effect.”

State media echoed Li’s plea to boost growth. China has to make a more strenuous effort to achieve this year’s economic growth target and all work on stabilising employment and helping small businesses needs to accelerate, the Economic Daily said in a commentary. The newspaper is affiliated with the State Council, China’s cabinet.

Li’s emphasis on growth in the second quarter may be an “implicit acknowledgment” that the growth target set in early March will be “challenging,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists wrote in a note.

“Chinese policy makers are in greater urgency to support the economy after the very weak activity growth in April, anaemic recovery month-to-date in May, and continued increases in unemployment rates.”

The meeting is the latest in a series of calls by Li to support growth, which has come under enormous pressure since March from Covid outbreaks and president Xi Jinping’s commitment to Covid Zero, requiring strict restrictions on activity where outbreaks occur.

Li said that economic data for the second quarter would be released “accurately” – amid some suspicion that official data could be massaged to appear less bad.

The premier indicated that China will try to reduce the economic impact of its strict coronavirus control policies, without specifying how that would be achieved. “At the same time as controlling the epidemic, we must complete the task of economic development,” he said.

High-frequency data showed the economy remained in a deep slump in May, as lockdowns continued to weigh on activity, according to Bloomberg’s aggregate index of eight indicators.

Beijing has never admitted to missing its annual growth target by a large margin since it began setting such goals more than three decades ago, with only one narrow miss previously reported in 1998. — Bloomberg