NBS head confident in China's 2023 growth target

China is fully confident in achieving its 2023 economic growth target of around 5 percent, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

Kang Yi said China's potential growth rate is widely expected to be between 5 and 6 percent, and the country will likely achieve this rate with the normalization of production and life order.

"From a medium to long-term perspective, China is still a developing country. There is still a wide gap between China and advanced countries in terms of per-capita levels. This leaves huge space for development as well as huge growth potential," he said on the sidelines of this year's two sessions on Sunday.

The fundamentals of China's long-term economic development stood unchanged, Kang said, and the country enjoys an ultra-large market, an abundant workforce and favorable conditions for development.

NBS data showed China's manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest pace in 130 months in February, as the official purchasing managers index for China's manufacturing sector surged to 52.6 in February, well above the 50-point market that separates expansion and contraction in activity.

"(The latest PMI readings) point to enterprises' strengthened confidence and improved expectations," Kang said. "China's economy is steadily improving. We've seen steady improvement in rail freight volume, power generation as well as some key indicators like industrial output and retail sales, with the latest set to be released on March 15."

He also said the economy still faces mounting uncertainties and a complicated environment as well as deep-rooted structural issues, and enterprises are also confronting difficulties themselves. More will be done to apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, move faster to create a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development.

According to the NBS, China reported 3 percent GDP growth for 2022, compared with 2.1 percent in the United States, 1 percent in Japan and 1.8 percent in Germany.

Notably, China's gross domestic expenditure on R&D exceeded 3 trillion yuan last year, accounting for 2.55 percent of GDP. That percentage of R&D spending is close to the average among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economies.

China's innovation capabilities have also grown significantly. The country moved from 12th to 11th place on the 2022 Global Innovation Index.

When it comes to national statistical work in general, Kang said this year China will conduct its fifth national economic census and the NBS will hold carbon emissions accounting and establish a common prosperity monitoring system.