China should maintain budget deficit ratio around 3 percent

SHANGHAI – 2 December 2017: China should try to maintain a budget deficit ratio of around 3 percent in 2018, the State Information Center said in an article published in the state-owned China Securities Journal on Saturday.

The State Information Center is an official think tank affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency.

China has maintained a budget deficit target of 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2017, unchanged from the previous year.

The think tank also proposed a target of 12 percent growth in total social financing in 2018, with monetary policy loose enough to meet the requirements of the real economy, but tight enough to curb excessive growth of financial risk.

The think tank said it recommended that China’s GDP target be set around 6.5 percent. Reuters earlier cited policy sources who said China would maintain a 6.5-percent target as policymakers balance the need for steady growth with attempts to address the country’s debt burden.

China’s economy grew 6.8 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, placing the country on a path to exceed the government’s target of around 6.5 percent growth for this year.