Experts: 7.6% growth until 2020

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