China Targets This Year`s Growth at 8 Pct.

China yesterday said it aims for growth of eight percent this year by maintaining measures to expand domestic demand, such as proactive fiscal and flexible monetary policies.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced this at the National People’s Congress in Beijing. “As the global economy has not completely gotten out of the financial crisis, it is too early for China and other nations to introduce exit strategies. The Chinese government also needs to introduce policies to expand domestic demand because it lacks economic growth engines.”

The event was attended by 2,939 out of 2,981 Chinese government officials, and will deliberate bills, the budget and major personnel issues.

To this end, China also increased the expected amount of its fiscal deficit 10 percent from a year ago to 1.05 trillion yuan (1.56 billion U.S. dollars).

Premier Wen also said Beijing will keep the urban unemployment rate under 4.6 percent by creating more than nine million jobs in cities. He pledged all-out efforts to ward off inflation resulting from overheating of the economy and the provision of more houses for the low-income bracket to prevent real estate speculation.

By doing so, the Chinese government said it wants to keep inflation at around three percent.

Wen also urged reform of China’s income distribution, saying, “It is important to create wealth via economic growth, but the wealth should be distributed in a fair manner for social justice.”

On the request by other countries for Beijing to appreciate its currency yuan, he said, “We’ll maintain the stability of our currency within reasonable and fair grounds.”

bonhong@donga.com