On the second day of the National People’s Congress (NPC) the country’s growth target of 4.5-5% was formally ratified. The figure was first proposed during the party’s plenum in October, the lowest growth target set by Beijing since 1991.
A lot has changed since the target was proposed by the party back then. The current Iran war is just the highest profile of the various changes coming in an increasingly volatile world and the fallout, at the very least in terms of disruption oil and natural gas supplies from the Middle East, will be significant and will stretch on through this year. Given these new uncertainties reaching even this already lower target is presumably going to be incredibly difficult.
The troubles have had a significant impact on stock markets, including the Hong Kong and Shanghai ones. But markets around the world were generally up yesterday and today, and premier Li Qiang’s speech on the second day of the NPC provided a good excuse for the Hong Kong market to rise in the morning, although it later fell back.