Shanghai sets 2016 growth goal at between 6.5-7%

SHANGHAI – Addressing lawmakers at the annual session of the Shanghai People’s Congress, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong has announced that the city’s 2016 economic growth target has been set at between 6.5% and 7% - 2016 is the first in the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

Delivering the Shanghai Government’s annual work report, the Mayor said: “The city will embrace the concepts of innovative, co-ordinated, green, open and shared development, and adapt to the ‘new normal’ of economic growth.”

He said the metropolis will stick to the process of reform and opening up, particularly focussing on “steady growth, structural readjustment and the well-being of its people by advancing supply-side reforms and pressing ahead with innovation-driven development”, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The Mayor said he expects GDP growth in 2016 to be in line with 2015, when it grew 6.9%: Spending on R&D should remain above 3.5% of GDP, while the urban registered unemployment rate should be “no higher than 4.4%”.

Last year, Shanghai’s economic output rose to RMB2.49 trillion, of which the service sector contributed almost 68%. The consumer price index was 2.4%, while the energy intensity of economic output was cut by about 4%. A total of 597,000 new jobs were created, while the urban registered unemployment rate was 4.1%.  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).