Going big on 2025 GDP, major Chinese local-level economies unveil ambitious targets

Some of China’s economically critical provinces and cities have unveiled ambitious gross domestic product goals for this year, signalling that Beijing’s policymakers will stick to at least a 5 per cent growth target for the nation at large, even in the face of renewed threats from US president-elect Donald Trump.

Southeast China’s Fujian province, one of the “backbone” regions underpinning Beijing’s hope of driving up the national economy, anticipates GDP growth of 5-5.5 per cent in 2025, and said it would “strive for better results based on the actual situation”.

Nanjing, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu and the country’s 10th-largest city-level economy, said at the weekend that it expects around 5 per cent economic growth in 2025, higher than last year’s presumptive expansion of 4.5 per cent.

Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province and the nation’s 15th-largest city-level economy, set this year’s growth target at 5.5 per cent, an increase from last year’s more ambiguous goal of “over 5 per cent”.

Shenyang, the capital city of northeast China’s Liaoning province, aims to achieve more than 5.5 per cent GDP growth this year, higher than the rise of 5.2 per cent projected for 2024.

Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the China Association of Policy Science’s Economic Policy Committee, said these types of targets are set to shore up confidence early in the year while also being in line with China’s long-term development objectives.