For the first time in 30 years, China has no GDP target
May 30th 2020CHINA HAD long been the only large economy with an annual growth target. On May 22nd the government said it would not set one this year, so profound is the uncertainty wrought by the pandemic. Economists applauded: the target obsession led to much wasteful investment and some book-cooking. With a little digging you can still get an idea of how fast the government expects the economy to expand. Its budget projections suggest that it is implicitly aiming for nominal growth of 5.4% in 2020.Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free for readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, see our coronavirus hubThis article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “China’s growth target”Reuse this contentThe Trust Project