China to meet major economic targets this year: Chinese Premier Li

China has the ability to fulfill major economic targets and tasks set for the year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday, noting the country is able to achieve steady development for the long run. China’s economic development enjoys strong resilience and solid underpinning, Li said while holding the sixth “1+6” Roundtable in Beijing via video link with heads of major international economic organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In March, China set its GDP growth target at over 6 percent for 2021, 3.7 percentage points higher than 2020’s GDP growth. In the first three quarters of this year, the country’s GDP grew by 9.8 percent compared with a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Speaking earlier, Vice Premier Liu He said that China’s annual economic growth is likely to exceed the announced target. Despite a slowdown in economic growth through the first three quarters of this year, both the IMF and Bloomberg have projected the world’s second largest economy to see 8-percent growth in GDP this year. “As China’s economy has been deeply integrated into the world economy, China will open its door still wider,” Li said, vowing to expand high-level openingup and share new opportunities of its development with the rest of the world. President of the World Bank Group David Malpass, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Director-general of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-iweala attended the virtual meeting.