In his Report on the Work of the Government, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set a GDP growth rate target of 6%, lower than the expectation of many Chinese economists that either Beijing would forgo the numerical target altogether or set an ambitious 8% growth rate. He also said the government would seek to cut the fiscal deficit target to 3.2% of China’s projected GDP this year, compared with a target of more than 3.6% in 2020 and that it plans to create 11 million new jobs in 2021, up from the 2020 target of 9 million. Li Keqiang also said China aims by 2025 to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 18% from 2020 levels. 

The Ministry of Finance earmarked a total of 610 billion yuan in the central government budget, an increase of 10 billion yuan over last year, for continuing to support major projects that promote

coordinated regional development and for pushing ahead with other major projects such as the development of new infrastructure and new urbanization initiatives. Asserting that the central government is tightening its belt to channel more funds to provincial governments it listed the breakdown of spending as follows: 147.025 billion yuan on general public services, down 14.1%; 50.414 billion yuan on foreign affairs, a drop of 1.9%; 1.355343 trillion yuan on national defense, up 6.8%; 185.092 billion yuan on public security, up 0.7%; 166.344 billion yuan on education, basically the same as the year before (national spending, which includes local outlays, will increase by 5.2%); 322.71 billion yuan on science and technology, roughly equivalent to the previous year (national spending, which includes local outlays, will rise by 3.3%); 122.473 billion yuan on stockpiling grain, edible oils, and other materials, basically the same as in 2020; and 599.824 billion yuan on debt interest payments, up 8.3%.