Some at home and abroad underestimate China's annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP), and booming tech innovation and consumption will ramp up the country's sustainable growth, according to experts.
China targets an economic growth rate of around 5 percent in 2025, according to a government work report delivered during the opening of the third session of the 14th National People's Congress, which concluded on Tuesday.
In CGTN's debate show "Talking China", broadcast on Tuesday, Li Cheng, founding director of the Center on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong, dismissed speculations that the 2025 GDP target would be too challenging to be achieved.
Noting that China's GDP grew by 5 percent year on year in 2024, he said that was "very impressive," higher than the other top economies, including the United States, Japan and Germany.
"But more importantly, if we look at the past a couple of decades or even longer, I think the experts, domestic and foreign, usually tend to underestimate rather than overestimate China's annual growth rate," Li warned.
In the same debate show, Wang Wen, dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said if China's GDP can grow by around 5 percent this year, its contribution to the world economic growth will be 35 percent or even 40 percent.
It has been the third consecutive year that China sets its GDP growth target at around five percent, Wang noted.
He acknowledged that China is under "a lot of pressure" to meet the growth target, especially given external factors like tariffs and trade obstacles set by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
However, such difficulties can be overcome, Wang said, citing China's unprecedented economic stimulus policies, including that China has set its deficit-to-GDP ratio for the year at around 4 percent, an increase of one percentage point over last year.
Wang also stressed that China's efforts in boosting innovation, and domestic consumption will support the economy's sustainable growth.
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[Watch | Talking China: Decoding China's economic governance](https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-03-07/Watch-Talking-China-Decoding-China-s-economic-governance-1Byo7BHxJYY/index.html)