China sets ambitious 5 percent growth target for 2024

China set on Tuesday a growth target of around five percent for 2024, an ambitious objective that the leaders of the world's second-largest economy admitted would be a challenge to meet.

Premier Li Qiang formally announced the growth goal, alongside the overall budget and key government policies for 2024, as China's annual National People's Congress (NPC) kicked off Tuesday.

Addressing thousands of delegates, Li warned that "achieving this year's targets will not be easy".

"The foundation for China's sustained economic recovery and growth is not solid enough," he said.

Last year's NPC saw President Xi Jinping anointed for a historic third term, cementing his rule as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

A year on, thousands of delegates attending the gathering must grapple with a litany of economic and security challenges, including a protracted property sector crisis, soaring youth unemployment, and a global slowdown that has hammered demand for Chinese goods.

 'Risks and dangers' 

The five percent goal is in line with last year's growth, but is a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the Chinese economy.

"We do not consider the five percent growth target to be conservative, we actually think it is ambitious," Wang Tao, Chief China Economist at UBS, told AFP.

"The property market has continued to fall and not yet reached the bottom, which exerts downward pressure on the economy," she added, saying that would have a "negative impact on local government finance and spending, and household wealth and consumer spending".

Li in his speech warned there remained "lingering risks and hidden dangers" still present in the economy.

Investors have...