Economy
January 15, 2021
CRU: China Macro Targets Bring Small Surprises
Written by Jumana Saleheen
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen and CRU Economist Yingrui Wang
On March 5, the Chinese government announced its macroeconomic targets for 2021 and beyond. It reaffirmed our broad view that China is keen to withdraw policy support gradually and deliver a steady economic slowdown over the next five years. What we learned is that the withdrawal of policy support will be a little slower than we initially expected. We did not expect a growth target to be set for 2021. Our interpretation is that the over 6% GDP target for 2021 was announced to reassure markets that growth has returned to pre-COVID-19 rates, which are well above the low of 2020.
