China is still on course to reach its growth target of about 5 per cent for 2025 despite seeing its weakest growth in a year during the third quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Beijing.
The economy grew by 4.8 per cent in the three months from July to September, down from 5.2 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
The figures were published on Monday as the Communist Party leadership met in Beijing to discuss the next five-year plan for 2026-2030 amid a years-long property market slump and rising youth unemployment.
Shortly before the meeting began, China and the United States said that negotiators would resume talks this week aimed at de-escalating their trade dispute in advance of a planned meeting at the end of next week between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US president Donald Trump.
Mr Trump on Sunday identified as the top issues Beijing’s export controls on rare earths, a Chinese commitment to buy more soybeans from the US, and co-operation on stopping the supply of chemicals used to manufacture the drug fentanyl.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet China’s vice-premier He Lifeng in Malaysia this week to prepare for the leaders’ meeting in South Korea at the end of next week.
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Mr Trump threatened last week to impose an extra 100 per cent tariff on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s expansion of its rare earths export controls to cover products containing even tiny amounts of the minerals. The US said it would assemble a coalition of allies to oppose the measures, which Beijing said were in response to Washington’s expansion of its list of Chinese companies subject to sanctions.
The fourth plenum of the Communist Party’s central committee began amid tight security in Beijing on Monday with Xi outlining proposals for the next five-year plan.
State media did not give details of what Mr Xi said but Xinhua news agency earlier offered a preview of the expected shape of the discussions during the four-day meeting.
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China’s five-year plans set the direction of economic and industrial policy and identifies specific priorities for investment and government support. The two most recent plans included measures that enabled the development of China’s green technology industries including electric vehicles, where it has become a global leader.
Xinhua suggested that the next five-year plan would include economic reform measures aimed at reducing regulation and market fragmentation. It pointed to an intensification of the focus on technological and scientific innovation and hinted at a strengthening of China’s meagre welfare system.
“Through the formulation and implementation of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” China will better leverage the roles of both an efficient market and a proactive government – using the market to enhance resource allocation efficiency, and the government to remedy market failures,” it said.