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China seeks to dodge economic `ups and downs`
Beijing, Mar 06: - China, charting a course of more modest economic growth and mild inflation, on Saturday forecast a $38.6 billion budget deficit this year as it shifts resources to help a vast countryside catch up with wealthier cities.
Beijing, Mar 06: - China, charting a course of more modest economic growth and mild inflation, on Saturday forecast a $38.6 billion budget deficit this year as it shifts resources to help a vast countryside catch up with wealthier cities.
China's development chief, Ma Kai, told the National People's Congress he aimed to keep the world's sixth biggest economy from being roiled by "big ups and downs".
China aims to check inflation at three percent and cap growth of the broad money supply at around 17 percent, a move aimed at staunching a flood of money that helped push annual inflation to 3.2 percent in January, the highest level in nearly seven years.
Ma, who heads the State Development and Reform Commission, a powerful ministry in charge of steering China's breakneck economy, targeted economic growth of around seven percent in 2003, a more modest pace than the 9.1 percent pace last year.
He is the latest senior official to signal an easing of an economy that has quickly become a source of global fascination as it suctions up materials and spews out cheap exports.
The ruling Communist Party fears that a widening wealth gap caused as cities and coastal areas race ahead of the backward hinterland could spark social unrest and undermine its authority over the country's 1.3 billion people.
Premier Wen Jiabao opened the annual parliament session on Friday, vowing to cool off the economy and help hundreds of millions of farmers who are angry at stagnant living standards, corruption and lack of basic services.
Nearly 3,000 delegates are gathered in the Soviet-style Great Hall of the People under a tight blanket of security for the 10-day session.
Plainclothes police dragged one man away from the hall's east gate on Saturday after he tried to unveil a placard. It was unclear what he was protesting, but petitioners from around the country come to the capital each year to air grievances.
Bureau Report
China aims to check inflation at three percent and cap growth of the broad money supply at around 17 percent, a move aimed at staunching a flood of money that helped push annual inflation to 3.2 percent in January, the highest level in nearly seven years.
Ma, who heads the State Development and Reform Commission, a powerful ministry in charge of steering China's breakneck economy, targeted economic growth of around seven percent in 2003, a more modest pace than the 9.1 percent pace last year.
He is the latest senior official to signal an easing of an economy that has quickly become a source of global fascination as it suctions up materials and spews out cheap exports.
The ruling Communist Party fears that a widening wealth gap caused as cities and coastal areas race ahead of the backward hinterland could spark social unrest and undermine its authority over the country's 1.3 billion people.
Premier Wen Jiabao opened the annual parliament session on Friday, vowing to cool off the economy and help hundreds of millions of farmers who are angry at stagnant living standards, corruption and lack of basic services.
Nearly 3,000 delegates are gathered in the Soviet-style Great Hall of the People under a tight blanket of security for the 10-day session.
Plainclothes police dragged one man away from the hall's east gate on Saturday after he tried to unveil a placard. It was unclear what he was protesting, but petitioners from around the country come to the capital each year to air grievances.
Bureau Report