China’s president warns that economic stimulus is ‘not the answer to nation’s challenges’

China will face increasing challenges over the next five years for which strong stimulus to boost development is no longer the solution, President Xi Jinping says.

“Risks that arise as a result of the country’s development may continue to accumulate and be consecutively revealed over the next five years,” Xi was on Friday quoted in the Communist Party’s flagship magazine Qiushi Journal as saying.

Xi was speaking at a meeting wrapping up the fifth plenum of the 18th party congress on October 29, according to the journal.

At that meeting, the party endorsed a guideline for China’s 13th five-year plan, a blueprint for the country’s socio-economic development until 2020.

China was facing significant challenges in its economy, politics, society as well as in dealing with natural disasters, Xi said. Global economic, political and military issues also posed risks to the country, he added.

Although economic development had improved living standards and helped resolve social problems in the past, the country’s problems were now more complex, the president said.

China’s gross domestic product growth target for the next five years is at least 6.5 per cent, according to the communique issued after the plenary meeting. It also set an at least 5.8 per cent growth target in disposable income for urban residents.