China expects to achieve an average annual economic growth rate of 7.6 per cent until 2020. In this benchmark year, the nation will achieve the status of becoming an "all-around well-off society."

This rate is lower than during the 1978-2004 period, when growth averaged at 9.4 per cent

The estimate was given by the State Information Centre during a two-day international conference on China's development strategies. The conference was jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (China) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The centre, a major data provider for the NDRC, also forecasted that China's economy will grow at 8 per cent annually in the coming five years.

This thinking was echoed by the State Council Development Research Centre, the central government's leading think-tank, which expects 8.1 per cent growth every year during the 2006-10 period.

Source: China Daily