Amid global slowdown, China aims to maintain growth rate at 6.5-7 percent

China is targeting average annual growth rate of 6.5% over the next five years in its 13th Five-Year Plan for 2016-2020 period. Despite the global economy slowing dramatically, China is confident of growing at the rate 6.5-7% in 2016. China grew below 7 percent for the first time in more than 25 years. China’s draft 13th five-year plan is a blueprint for economic and social development between 2016 and 2020. The government flagged major job losses in the key production industries of coal and steel as policymakers seek to eliminate inefficiencies and overcapacity in state-owned enterprises through consolidation and layoffs. China aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years, which is also being hailed as Beijing’s boldest retrenchment program in almost two decades. China seeks to maintain stability and ensure redundancies do not lead to unrest. The government will spend nearly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) to cover layoffs in just the coal and steel sectors in the next 2-3 years.  China’s Premier Li Keqiang  said that the country will create 10 million new jobs and bring down registered unemployment rate below 4.5% in 2016. China is also aiming at keeping inflation around 3 percent and money supply growth of around 13 percent in 2016. China plans to cap total annual energy consumption at 5 billion tonnes of standard coal by 2020. This will be the first time it has introduced such a target. China has also decided to increase its military expenditure by 7.6 percent, which is the lowest in its record.