Nation on course to meet GDP growth goal

China is well positioned to meet its preset annual growth target this year, supported by pro-growth policies, a resilient domestic market and rapid advances in technological innovation, said a renowned economist.

Zhang Xiaoyan, associate dean at Tsinghua University's PBC School of Finance, expressed confidence in the foundations of the Chinese economy, even as she acknowledged continued global and domestic challenges.

"There are obviously a lot of challenges, but China's economy has been growing very steadily over the past years," Zhang said.

"I am positive China can achieve the annual growth target of around 5 percent in 2025," she said in an exclusive interview with China Daily. "Starting from last September, there have been very powerful stimulants from both the monetary and fiscal policy fronts."

Looking ahead, Zhang believes that the key drivers of China's future growth will be technological innovation and public confidence.

Citing the success of the Deep-Seek AI model, she added: "In the past, people worried (that) China could never develop AI models comparable to US models. But we've proven that, even with less computing power, we can still build something beautiful and powerful."

Zhang emphasized the strength of China's innovation ecosystem, which combines regulatory support, talent development, and capital market participation. "It's not just one part of the market doing the right thing. It's the regulators, the financial services industry, the universities — we're all working to create an innovation-friendly environment," she said.

Zhang also urged continued efforts to maintain momentum.

"China should keep doing the right things — regulations being open, fostering high-end technologies, cultivating the most-needed professionals, and ensuring capital flows into high-potential sectors," she said. "If we keep doing those things, the success will continue."

Zhang pointed to consumption as another critical growth engine. "We used to be a manufacturer for the whole world. Now, we're looking for new growth breakthroughs," she said. "Consumption upgrading is a super strong driver for economic transformation."

Data from the National Development and Reform Commission show that China's domestic demand contributed an average of 86.4 percent to the country's economic growth during the past four years, with final consumption contributing 56.2 percent, an increase of 8.6 percentage points compared with the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

During a news conference held in Beijing recently, Yuan Da, secretary-general of the NDRC, highlighted China's ultra-large domestic market with huge growth potential, saying "domestic demand has always been the main driver and stabilizer of China's economy".

"We will place greater emphasis on strengthening domestic circulation, steadfastly implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and speed up the development of a comprehensive domestic demand system," he said.

Zhang agreed, highlighting China's long-standing strategy of building a new development paradigm featuring dual circulation, in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

"Our domestic market is pretty big and stable by itself," she said. "If there is too much uncertainty outside of China, we can still have some stable growth."