Five Things to Know About China’s Plan to Stabilize Growth in 2022

Stabilizing economic growth has reemerged as the top priority of China’s policymakers, as the world’s second-largest economy’s initial rapid recovery from Covid-19 flames out.

“Economic growth is the biggest challenge of 2022,” said Yang Weimin, a top economic advisor. Economists expect growth to continue to moderate in the fourth quarter of 2021 from the 4.9% year-on-year pace in the July-September period — the weakest in a year. In 2022, the annual growth rate is expected to fall below 6% or even 5.5%, compared with an expected rate of around 8% in 2021.