China’s Slowdown is Structural

Main points

• China is no longer capable of sustaining the double-digit growth in real GDP that it did between 1979 and the global financial crisis.
• Under Xi Jinping they are pursuing a range of economic objectives that are not focused around maximising GDP growth. The most recent meeting of China’s National People’s Congress set a real GDP growth target of 5½ per cent for 2022 – which, if achieved would be the lowest growth rate in 40 years.

See our other box analysis from the Global Economic Outlook