Doubling the size of China's economy and income per capita by 2035 is "completely possible," President Xi Jinping said in a speech made public Tuesday explaining the ruling Communist Party's new five- and 15-year economic goals.
The proposals for China's 2021-25 economic plan and long-term targets for 2035 -- decided at last week's plenary session of the party's Central Committee -- were reported by the official Xinhua News Agency, as was Xi's speech.
China can meet the threshold for becoming a high-income country in the next five years, Xi said. But the proposals made no mention of specific growth rate targets, instead focusing on qualitative expressions.
By comparison, the president's November 2015 explanation of the proposal for the 2016-20 plan noted that gross domestic product would need to rise by 6.5% a year on average.
The lack of numerical targets owes to the uncertainty created by factors including the coronavirus pandemic and the slumping global economy. Xi indicated that specific goals will be included in the outline to be passed by China's legislature, the National People's Congress, when it meets in March.
Doubling China's GDP in 15 years would require average annual growth of 4.7%.
The U.S. Congressional Budget Office projects American GDP to reach $31 trillion in 2030. Assuming a constant yuan-dollar exchange rate, China's GDP would be nearly 80% that of the U.S. in 2030 and could surpass it in the mid-2030s.
Doubling the size of China's economy and income per capita by 2035 is "completely possible," President Xi Jinping said in a speech made public Tuesday explaining the ruling Communist Party's new five- and 15-year economic goals.
China can meet the threshold for becoming a high-income country in the next five years, Xi said. But the proposals made no mention of specific growth rate targets, instead focusing on qualitative expressions.
Doubling China's GDP in 15 years would require average annual growth of 4.7%.
