What investors expect from China's 5th Plenum

THE government announced last week that the fifth plenary session for the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, or the 5th Plenum, will be held on Oct 26-29.

What makes this year's meeting particularly important is that 2015 connects China's 12th five-year plan (2011-2015) and the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020), and the upcoming Plenum meeting will discuss the development plan for the upcoming five years.

A key focus of the market will be on the average growth rate that the government sets for 2016-2020. There are wide expectations that the targeted rate will be lowered from the current 7 per cent.

We think that the number will most likely come down to 6.5 per cent, which will be enough to meet t…