China likely to lower GDP growth target to 6.5% for next 5 years during Fifth Plenum

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By reporter Goh Jin-ah, AsiaToday - Chinese leaders convened in Beijing on Monday for the start of the Fifth Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to discuss the country's economic development plan for the next five years.

The four-day meeting is attended by more than 350 top officials and party leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting will set the direction for China's 13th Five-Year Plan (FYP), which will run from 2016 to 2020.

During the meeting, Chinese leaders are highly likely to lower the country's GDP growth target. China Times reported that economic forecasters say China's reasonable growth for the next five years will be between 6.5% and 7.5%.

However, some forecast that China will try to maintain the existing growth target. Hong Kong's Ming Pao reported that some experts suggested to lower the GDP growth target to 6.5% for the next five years, however, China would either maintain its 7% growth target or avoid telling the concrete numerical growth and say they are aiming to maintain medium-high growth of economy instead.

Experts say it's possible to double China's GDP level with annual average growth of 6.5%, however China will need to needs to target a growth rate of 7.1% in order to double China's per capita income, the newspaper added.

According to People's Daily, the 10 focus areas for the Five-Year Plan includes maintaining economic growth, switching economic development approach, improving the industrial structure, pushing forward innovation, accelerating agricultural modernization, setting reform system mechanism, promoting cooperation development, accelerating economical civilization establishment, improving people's livelihood, promoting poverty alleviation. It's the first time that 'accelerating ecological civilization establishment' is presented in the plan, reflecting concerns of the Chinese authorities over serious environmental issues.

The 13th Five-Year Plan is the first under Xi Jinping's leadership, and there could be a major personnel shuffle at the leadership level in addition to economic issues.