has set out its economic forecast for the year. the country has set a modest target for economic growth this year of around 5%, as it kicked off the annual session of its national people s congress which is poised to implement the biggest government shake up in a decade. last year, successive strict lockdowns slowed growth in china. official figures show the world s second largest economy grew by 3% last year, which was way below the government target of 5.5% and its slowest for decades. janet mui is head of market analysis at brewin dolphin. talk to me about this slowdown because it is a sort of figure that most developed economies would love to have right now, but a slow down to have right now, but a slow down to 5% marks quite a shift in a china s economic outlook. good morning- china s economic outlook. good morning. thank china s economic outlook. good morning. thank you china s economic outlook. good morning. thank you for - china s economic outlook. good morning.
year, the figure this year is for domestic economic growth, which is by domestic assumption. i think that would be a good story because of the ending of the strict covid i9 strategy, already seeing data showing that the traffic in china has picked up, they are already starting to see congestion on the roads, so these are signs that people are going out and about. so the domestic economy, the headwinds will still be there, the confidence is returning, as people anticipate it, and the youth and unemployment is youth unemployment is almost at a i7%, is youth unemployment is almost at a i7%, quite high, so the government will need to address that. we 17%, quite high, so the government will need to address that. will need to address that. we have been very used will need to address that. we have been very used to will need to address that. we have been very used to strong - will need to address that. we have been very used to strong growth . been very used to strong growth figures from
apparent legislative inability to put through procedural votes to keep the world economy ticking over. but in the medium term at least, china needs that debt to shore up its economy. john? david, how much of that criticism, that rare criticism, you know, if you look at it from the outside, doesn t seem to be quite that fierce or strong words, but they are strong words for china because they don t often say that kind of thing. there s really not that criticism coming from beijing. but how much of that is for domestic consumption? reporter: i think quite a lot of it is domestic consumption on some level, though, because some of the state media that you saw talking about this issue did not give out the same statements in the chinese language. so it s been a double game china is playing. they don t necessarily want on the governmental level here to push the fact that they want the u.s. to end the impasse because they don t really want word out