China needs to step up economic restructuring, not just growth

ONE of the highlights of the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress (NPC), which began in Beijing on March 5, is the projection for economic growth put out by the country's leadership. This year, many economists believe that the projection might be both ambitious and a bit too high for comfort.

On Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that China's economic growth would be 6.5 to 7 per cent in 2016 and would remain at around 6.5 per cent for the next five years.

Although this is not high by China's historical standards - last year's 6.9 per cent growth was the lowest in 25 years - it also suggests that economic restructuring and reform, which China sorely needs, may get less priority than it deserves.