Outgoing premier Wen Jiabao is delivering the Government Work Report today. This is considered the equivalent of the State of the Union speech.
Here are some of the highlights via Xinhua:
- Official growth target of 7.5 percent
- Inflation target of 3.5 percent
- A deficit of 1.2 trillion yuan or about 2 percent of GDP
- Defense spending to increase at 10.7 percent
- Add over 9 million urban jobs
- Target for growth of broad money supply (M2) is lowered to 13 percent
- The report also highlights what the government aims to do this year. "Basic pensions for enterprise retirees should be raised by 10 percent, and subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents and subsidies for entitled groups should also be further raised."
- China will complete 4.7 million government-subsidized urban housing units and begin constructing an additional 6.3 million units in 2013. It will also continue to renovated old rural homes.
Bank of America's Ting Lu says the 7.5 percent target is "achievable", and he expects GDP growth of 8.1 percent. "The government has no intention to achieve a faster growth pace than 8.0%, and we believe that new leaders will take actions to curb investment."
For those disappointed by the money supply growth target, "monetary targets have lost their appeal and importance due to financial innovation and M2 will be biased downwards in coming years," writes Ting.
Remember some of these targets were expected based on the Central Economic Work Conference in December last year.
We have already said the NPC will vote on two key bills in the next two weeks, one on land reform and the other to merge the Ministry of Railways with the Ministry of Transportation.
The meeting is expected to last till March 17.