China's Economic Progress Matches Goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan
In 2025, China is set to complete its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which emphasizes steady GDP growth and proactive measures amidst a complex and challenging landscape characterized by rising external pressures and escalating internal issues.
TroibNews 
In 2025, China is set to complete its 14th Five-Year Plan, which emphasizes steady GDP growth and proactive strategies in navigating a complex landscape marked by increasing external pressures and domestic challenges.
This Five-Year Plan outlines key economic development indicators, including GDP growth, labor productivity, and urbanization rates.
For GDP, the plan indicates that proposals for average annual growth should remain within a reasonable range, tailored to the conditions of each year.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released in January, China's GDP experienced a 5 percent year-on-year increase in 2024, reaching 134.9084 trillion yuan and achieving the government's annual target.
The Plan underscores the importance of labor productivity growth outpacing GDP growth. In 2023, labor productivity rose by 5.7 percent year on year, surpassing the GDP growth of 5.2 percent, which demonstrates improved resource efficiency, accelerated industrial transformation, and increased competitiveness. With ongoing efforts to foster new quality productive forces, it is expected that China will achieve this target by 2025.
Additionally, the Plan aims to elevate the urbanization rate of the permanent resident population to 65 percent, while the rate had already reached 66.16 percent by the end of 2023, a significant increase from 53.1 percent at the close of 2012.
The government has announced its intention to assist more rural migrant workers in transitioning to urban areas, with a goal of raising the urbanization rate of permanent residents to nearly 70 percent within five years.
**Plans for 2025**
In shaping economic growth targets for 2025, China will take into account both requirements and possibilities, ensuring alignment with medium- and long-term strategies, stated Yuan Da, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission, during a press conference in early January.
"We are full of confidence in promoting the continuous recovery of the economy in 2025, and also fully confident in completing the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality," Yuan remarked.
Government reports unveiled during local Two Sessions, which typically precede the national sessions, show that most provincial regions in China have set local GDP growth targets for 2025 at around 5 percent or more. These local targets offer insights into the anticipated national economic performance in the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
The Central Economic Work Conference held in December has already laid out crucial measures and tasks for the economy in 2025. The conference indicated that China plans to implement a more proactive fiscal policy alongside a moderately loose monetary policy for the year.
Key priorities for economic work in 2025 encompass nine areas, including stimulating consumption, developing high-quality productive forces, addressing risks in critical sectors, maintaining poverty alleviation gains, and promoting green development, all of which align with the objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Furthermore, the conference emphasized the need for increased efforts to enhance high-level opening up and ensure steady growth in foreign trade and investment.
Recently, China released an action plan to stabilize foreign investment in 2025, pledging to support pilot regions in effectively applying opening-up policies in areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, while providing comprehensive support for foreign-invested projects in these domains.
The plan also includes provisions for lifting restrictions on domestic loans for foreign-invested enterprises, enabling these companies to utilize domestic financing for equity investments.
Navid Kalantari for TROIB News
This Five-Year Plan outlines key economic development indicators, including GDP growth, labor productivity, and urbanization rates.
For GDP, the plan indicates that proposals for average annual growth should remain within a reasonable range, tailored to the conditions of each year.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released in January, China's GDP experienced a 5 percent year-on-year increase in 2024, reaching 134.9084 trillion yuan and achieving the government's annual target.
The Plan underscores the importance of labor productivity growth outpacing GDP growth. In 2023, labor productivity rose by 5.7 percent year on year, surpassing the GDP growth of 5.2 percent, which demonstrates improved resource efficiency, accelerated industrial transformation, and increased competitiveness. With ongoing efforts to foster new quality productive forces, it is expected that China will achieve this target by 2025.
Additionally, the Plan aims to elevate the urbanization rate of the permanent resident population to 65 percent, while the rate had already reached 66.16 percent by the end of 2023, a significant increase from 53.1 percent at the close of 2012.
The government has announced its intention to assist more rural migrant workers in transitioning to urban areas, with a goal of raising the urbanization rate of permanent residents to nearly 70 percent within five years.
**Plans for 2025**
In shaping economic growth targets for 2025, China will take into account both requirements and possibilities, ensuring alignment with medium- and long-term strategies, stated Yuan Da, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission, during a press conference in early January.
"We are full of confidence in promoting the continuous recovery of the economy in 2025, and also fully confident in completing the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality," Yuan remarked.
Government reports unveiled during local Two Sessions, which typically precede the national sessions, show that most provincial regions in China have set local GDP growth targets for 2025 at around 5 percent or more. These local targets offer insights into the anticipated national economic performance in the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
The Central Economic Work Conference held in December has already laid out crucial measures and tasks for the economy in 2025. The conference indicated that China plans to implement a more proactive fiscal policy alongside a moderately loose monetary policy for the year.
Key priorities for economic work in 2025 encompass nine areas, including stimulating consumption, developing high-quality productive forces, addressing risks in critical sectors, maintaining poverty alleviation gains, and promoting green development, all of which align with the objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Furthermore, the conference emphasized the need for increased efforts to enhance high-level opening up and ensure steady growth in foreign trade and investment.
Recently, China released an action plan to stabilize foreign investment in 2025, pledging to support pilot regions in effectively applying opening-up policies in areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, while providing comprehensive support for foreign-invested projects in these domains.
The plan also includes provisions for lifting restrictions on domestic loans for foreign-invested enterprises, enabling these companies to utilize domestic financing for equity investments.
Navid Kalantari for TROIB News
