China promises strong economic growth – E24

Prime Minister Li Keqiang made the announcement during the opening session of the National People’s Congress on Friday night.

Last year, China broke with tradition and set no targets for economic growth. The last growth target was not set in 1990, writes NDP.

The cause is corona infection. Nevertheless, the country ended up growing at 2.3 percent a year in GDP – thus making China the only major economy to grow.

The Prime Minister also emphasized this in his speech.

Meanwhile, the country’s defense ministry has announced that the defense budget will increase by 6.8 percent. According to the Think Tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, the budget increased by 5.9 percent last year to $ 12 billion.

More jobs

Presenting the report, Prime Minister Li Keqiang said China aims to create 11 million new “urban jobs” this year. I.e., jobs in cities and suburbs.

Many new jobs have been created in 2019, an increase from the nine million jobs created during last year’s epidemics.

He writes that the big economy aims to increase the consumer price index by about three percent CNBC

– The Prime Minister said that we are facing strong tasks while preventing risk in the financial sector and other areas.

Took American relations

International trade agreements were also a topic when the so-called full session. The Prime Minister stressed the relationship between China and the United States.

Li Keqiang, among others, stressed that the relationship between the two major economies will be mutually reinforced by equality and “mutual respect.”

He said China would work with Japan and South Korea to accelerate free trade.

During the plenary session, the Prime Minister acknowledged that the country still has “weak points” in controlling epidemics and economic repercussions, but also stressed that the economy has recovered significantly, CNBC writes.

Weak exchanges

On the last trading day of the week, stock market sentiment in most Asian countries. Already on Thursday, stock markets in the East fell sharply, with several key indices falling more than 2 percent.

Stock markets in Asia and the Pacific closed on Friday:

• The Nikkei 225 is down 0.23 percent in Tokyo
• In Hong Kong, Hong Kong fell 0.47 percent
• Cosby is down 0.57 percent in Seoul
• Shanghai composite almost flat (-0.043 percent)
• The FDSE Straight Times in Singapore fell 0.05 percent
• The Sydney ASX 200 is down 0.74 percent

New interest rate effect

On Thursday night, the key “ten years” – the yield on ten-year U.S. government bonds – soared following the US Federal Reserve speech.

“The reopening has put pressure on prices,” said central bank chairman Jerome Powell.

Interest rate hikes have created unrest among investors for inflation. Wall Street fell further on Thursday, with the Nasdaq index up 2.11 percent.