China will meet its growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent growth this year, a reassuring sign for a "weak and vulnerable" global economy, state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary on Monday. Xinhua noted a "troublesome start" to 2016, probably referring to a sharp fall in the yuan and worry about China's slowing economy roiling markets world-wide. The yuan remains weak after foreign reserves fell more than expected in November.
Nor would maintaining stable growth be easy for China in 2017, Xinhua said, "given persistently weak external demand, ongoing deleveraging and capacity-reduction pressure, and a slowing property sector". But, unlike other countries, China has the flexibility to ward off sharp economic decline as it restructures its economy towards consumption and services, the Xinhua article said.
It warned that trading partners would only have access to China's home market if similar access was given by other countries, a nod to growing protectionist sentiment around the world, a worrying trend for the world's largest exporter. China may target economic growth of about 6.5 percent next year, Reuters has reported, still higher than most other major economies, but if that slowdown in growth did occur, others would need China "more than ever", the article said.