Li, having just returned from visits to Germany and France last week, during which he urged China and Europe to “rise above their differences”, also used his address in Tianjin to comment on the bloc’s recent rhetoric on China.
“The invisible barriers put up by some people in recent years are becoming widespread and pushing the world into fragmentation and even confrontation,” Li said, in an apparent reference to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s assessment that Europe must “de-risk” diplomatically and economically from China.
“We firmly oppose the artificial politicisation of economic and trade issues,” Li said, adding that effective communications were vital to avoid misunderstanding between nations.
The trend of globalisation remains intact despite some setbacks, said the Chinese premier, reiterating a key theme since taking up his post that China remains open for business and welcomes foreign investors.
“We should follow the trend of the times, further develop consensus and unswervingly build an open world economy,” Li said.Â
5% GROWTH TARGET
China’s economic growth in the second quarter will be higher than the first and is on course to achieve its 5 per cent target for economic growth in 2023 set by Beijing earlier this year, Li also told the audience at the forum, which is being attended by leaders from New Zealand, Mongolia, Vietnam and Barbados, as well as a large delegation from Saudi Arabia.
“For the whole year, we are expected to achieve the target of about five per cent economic growth set at the beginning of this year,” Li said.
“We are fully confident and capable of pushing ahead the steady and long-term development of China’s economy on the track of high-quality development in the relative long term.”
As factory output slows amid weak external and domestic demand, Li said: “We will launch more practical and effective measures in expanding the potential of domestic demand, activating market vitality, promoting coordinated development … and promoting high-level opening to the outside world.”
However, analysts are now downgrading their economic growth forecasts for China for the rest of the year.
Several major banks have cut their 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts after May industrial output and retail sales data missed forecasts and indicated Beijing would need to take more steps to shore up a shaky post-COVID recovery.
China’s GDP grew 4.5 per cent year-on-year in the first three months of the year, but momentum has faded sharply since. However, many analysts still expect second-quarter growth to appear solid versus a year earlier, when COVID-19 lockdowns crippled activity.
Beijing’s central bank last week cut two key interest rates in a bid to counter the slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
And reports this month have suggested Beijing is lining up a tranche of measures targeting multiple areas of the economy, particularly the real estate sector, which makes up a huge portion of gross domestic product.
Beijing set an economic growth target of “around five per cent” in March, one of its lowest in decades as it emerged from strict zero-COVID rules that hammered business activity.
Premier Li at the time said the target would be “no easy task”.
Source: CNA
