Going big on 2025 GDP, major Chinese local-level economies unveil ambitious targets
Bold goals for local gross domestic product growth seen as shoring up confidence early while lining up with China’s long-term objectives
Some of China’s economically critical provinces and cities have unveiled ambitious gross domestic product goals for this year, signalling that Beijing’s policymakers will stick to at least a 5 per cent growth target for the nation at large, even in the face of renewed threats from US president-elect Donald Trump.
Southeast China’s Fujian province, one of the “backbone” regions underpinning Beijing’s hope of driving up the national economy, anticipates GDP growth of 5-5.5 per cent in 2025, and said it would “strive for better results based on the actual situation”.
Nanjing, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu and the country’s 10th-largest city-level economy, said at the weekend that it expects around 5 per cent economic growth in 2025, higher than last year’s presumptive expansion of 4.5 per cent.
Several other major cities in Jiangsu have also established growth targets exceeding 5 per cent, with Wuxi and Changzhou targeting growth rates surpassing 5 per cent.
Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province and the nation’s 15th-largest city-level economy, set this year’s growth target at 5.5 per cent, an increase from last year’s more ambiguous goal of “over 5 per cent”.
