China to stick with ‘around 6.5%’ growth target

With the property market likely to remain under pressure and investment sluggish, many market watchers expect Beijing to cut its growth target for 2015 to around 7 percent., File pic shows: A worker rides past a poster showing Beijing's central business district outside a construction site in Beijing, December 29, 2014.- Reuters

BEIJING: China will keep its target for economic growth at “around 6.5%” in 2018, unchanged from last year, policy sources told Reuters, as it seeks to balance efforts to reduce debt risks while keeping the world’s second-largest economy stable.

The proposed target, to be unveiled at the annual parliament meeting in March, was endorsed by top leaders at the closed-door Central Economic Work Conference in Dec 18-20, according to four sources with knowledge of the meeting outcome.