Beijing’s GDP target has always been animportant subject,but this year, because of China’s Zero-COVID policy and the growing Omicronsurge, supply chains and transportation ports are facing great threats.
China,the world’s second-largest economy, is witnessing a slump in the GDP growthagain in the latter half of the year, and the policymakers have set the lowest annual GDP target for China in the decade of 2022, reported Dawn. Because of the strict lockdown policies, the set figure of 5.5 pc would be hard to achieve, and experts from 12 financial institutions forecast a GDP growth of 5.0 pc for the full year, a figure of 4.3 pc for the first quarter, just above 4.0 pc recorded in the three months prior.
Gene Ma,head of China research at the Institute of International Finance said,"China's economy saw a good start in January and February with fewer energy constraints, domestic demand recovery... fiscal stimulus, and resilient exports."
State Council of the People's Republic of China's Premier Li Keqiang said that therethe support from the state authorities should be stepped up. He noted that tools including cuts to the reserve requirement ratio for banks could be tapped to help virus-hit sectors, reported local media.
COVID has effect in other cities as well,including the southern tech powerhouse Shenzhen, which went into completelockdown for nearly a week in March. Goldman Sachs in its recently published report said, "The hit to retail sales could be even bigger, as dining-out services -- around 10pc of retail sales -- were temporarily suspended in a few provinces.