China set an ambitious growth target of approximately 5% for this year. The announcement was made by Premier Li Qiang at the opening of the annual National People’s Congress on Tuesday. Mr Li acknowledged that China’s economic performance has faced difficulties and China is struggling to reinvigorate its once-booming economy.

A series of other measures to help the country’s recovery from the pandemic were also announced. There will be the development of new initiatives to tackle problems in the country’s property sector. Also announced were increased regulation of the financial markets and increased research in new technologies, including AI and life sciences. China’s defense spending will also be increased by 7.2% this year. For years, the Chinese economy expanded rapidly, with it’s GDP estimated to grow at an average of 10% a year. In the last year, the economy grew by 5.2%, which is low for China, additionally, critics argue that the real figure could be lower than 1/3 of that approximation.

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