China Reiterates Hitting 2025 Growth Target Amid Trade Tension

China will take measures to achieve its annual economic growth target of around 5% despite escalating trade tensions and uncertainties, the country’s finance minister said in Washington earlier this week.

“China will adopt more proactive and effective macro policies to achieve the expected annual growth target and continue to bring stability and impetus to the global economy,” said Finance Minister Lan Fo’an in a statement posted on the ministry’s Website on Saturday. Lan also criticized trade protectionism, called on international institutions to uphold free trade and promised China will remain open.

China’s GDP expanded 5.4% last quarter from a year before, thanks in part to Beijing’s consumer subsidies, along with an export surge to get ahead of the tariffs. Economists at institutions including UBS Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Societe Generale have lowered their forecasts for China’s 2025 growth in recent weeks, to around 4% or lower.

Lan’s remarks echoed with those made by People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng, who is also attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The driving force for global economic growth is weak and the US has “wantonly imposed tariffs, seriously infringing upon the legitimate rights and interests of various countries,” Pan was quoted as saying in a separate statement posted on the central bank’s website on Saturday.

China’s economy got off to a good start in the first quarter of this year with an increasing number of positive factors, Pan said in Washington. China’s macro economic policies will be more proactive and effective, Pan added.