BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s 2024 gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to exceed 130 trillion yuan ($17.8 trillion), President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday in his New Year’s address, adding that the country would implement more proactive policies to promote growth in 2025.
The world’s second-largest economy has struggled to stage a robust revival this year as a prolonged property market downturn, mounting local government debt and subdued consumer confidence hampered growth.
Exports, a key driver and a bright spot for the economy, could be threatened by potentially higher tariffs once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House later in January.
In a televised speech, Xi said China had responded to the impacts of the changing environment at home and abroad and adopted a full range of policies to help it pursue high-quality development in the past year.
Since late September, authorities unleashed a blitz of stimulus measures including broad rate cuts and looser rules around home buying to shore up the property market and domestic demand.
“Current economic operation faces new challenges, including challenges of uncertainties in the external environment and pressure of transformation from old growth drivers to new ones,” Xi said.
“But we can prevail with our hard work. As always, we grow in the wind and rain, and we get stronger through hard times,” he added. “We must be confident.”
In another speech at a New Year event earlier on Tuesday, Xi said China’s GDP is expected to have grown by around 5% this year, suggesting the country is set to meet 2024’s official growth target.
Earlier this month, top leaders pledged a shift to an “appropriately loose” monetary policy in 2025, which would mark the first such easing in 14 years.
They also vowed to spur consumption and increase bond issuance to stimulate growth next year.
Chinese authorities have agreed to issue a record 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) worth of special treasury bonds in 2025, Reuters reported, citing sources.
The country’s budget deficit is set to rise to 4% of GDP in 2025, sources said separately, while the government plans to maintain a growth target of around 5%.
($1 = 7.2993 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ethan Wang, Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
