China holds an unprecedented, massive videoconference on the economy

[superadmin]

• “The difficulties, in some areas and to a certain degree, are even greater than the severe shock of the pandemic in 2020,” Premier Li Keqiang said during a nationwide videoconference Wednesday, according to a CNBC translation of a Chinese-language state media report.
  
• A state media news broadcast Wednesday showed large conference rooms of people from different provinces tuning into the meeting.
  
• There hasn’t been such a meeting of this scale for years, and it’s unprecedented for one meeting to address so many levels of government at once, said Zong Liang, chief researcher at the Bank of China. 
  

BEIJING — China held a rare nationwide meeting via teleconference Wednesday to bolster an economy battered by Covid.

The timing and scale indicated to analysts the level of urgency and current challenges for the country to achieve its target of around 5.5% GDP growth for the year.

“The difficulties, in some areas and to a certain degree, are even greater than the severe shock of the pandemic in 2020,” Premier Li Keqiang said during the videoconference, according to a CNBC translation of a Chinese-language state media report.

He warned how the economy is at a “critical point” for determining its full-year trajectory, and called on officials to “work hard” — for growth in the second quarter and a drop in unemployment, the report said.

Mainland China has tried to contain its worst Covid outbreak since early 2020 by using stringent stay-home orders and travel restrictions, most notably in the metropolis of Shanghai. Foreign companies have reported lost production and sales as a result.

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