China signals it could miss economic growth target

China has warned that it may miss its yearly economic growth target as COVID restrictions pressure the second-largest economy in the world.

The Politburo, the Communist Party’s highest policy-making body, declared on Thursday that it aims to keep growth “within an acceptable range.”

It made no mention of the previously established official growth target of 5.5 percent.

China continues to impose its zero-COVID policy, which has led to the whole or partial lockdown of important cities.

Following its quarterly economic conference, the 25-member Politburo, led by President Xi Jinping, declared that leaders would “strive to achieve the highest outcomes possible.”

Additionally, it exhorted the stronger provinces to work toward reaching their goals for growth.

Analysts noted that the absence of a GDP announcement was noteworthy, even though economists had already expected that China would have difficulty achieving its 5.5 percent goal.

According to a note from Nomura analysts Ting Lu, Jing Wang, and Harrington Zhang, Beijing advised reasonably well-positioned provinces to work to achieve their economic and social targets for this year.

China said earlier this month that its GDP fell significantly in the second quarter of this year.

At this time, major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, the nation’s main manufacturing and financial hub, were either totally or partially placed under lockdown.

In China’s once-burgeoning real estate market, which is also going through a severe downturn, home sales have been down for 11 straight months.

Many Chinese developers have stopped building homes that have already been sold due to concerns about cash flow.

In recent weeks, some homebuyers have threatened to stop paying their mortgages unless business starts back up.

In light of the outbreak, China made the extraordinary choice to forgo its GDP targets for 2020.

A measure of economic size is the GDP. The expansion or contraction of the economy is one of the most important measures of how well or poorly it is performing and is regularly monitored by economists and central banks.

It also helps businesses decide when to invest more and expand, or less and contract, their workforces.