China eyes 5 percent growth despite trade war

China on Wednesday set an annual growth target of around five percent, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as an escalating trade war with the US hit Beijing's exports. Beijing also announced a rare hike in fiscal funding, allowing its budget deficit to reach four percent this year as it battles stuttering employment for young people, stubbornly low consumer demand and a persistent property sector debt crisis. Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore's NTU, said Beijing's growth target would be "tough but possible". He said low consumption was a "confidence issue", adding that "if people are, in their own calculations, worried about spending -- especially on big-ticket items -- it is far harder to address".

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