China's NPC 2025: Beijing sets 5 percent growth target despite trade war with US

China has set an annual growth target of “about 5 percent”, promising to make domestic demand its main economic driver as an escalating trade war with the United States hit exports. The headline growth figure announced by Premier Li Qiang at an annual Communist Party conclave on Wednesday also included a rare rise in fiscal funding, allowing China’s budget deficit to reach 4 percent this year as it battles stuttering employment for young people, low consumer demand and a property sector debt crisis. Under the plans, some 12 million new jobs will be created in Chinese cities as Beijing pushes for 2 percent inflation this year.