China sets 2026 economic growth target at 4.5% to 5%

China has set its economic growth target for 2026 at between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent and will strive to achieve better results in practice, according to a government work report submitted Thursday to the country's top legislature for deliberation.

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The main development targets for this year also include maintaining the surveyed urban unemployment rate at around 5.5 percent and creating more than 12 million new jobs in urban areas.

Other targets include keeping the increase in the consumer price index at around 2 per cent, ensuring personal income growth in line with economic growth; a basic equilibrium in the balance of payments, and achieving grain output of around 700 million tonnes.

The report also aims for a reduction of around 3.8 per cent in carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product.

China on Thursday set out a five-year roadmap to turbocharge scientific breakthroughs and embed

Al across its industrial economic machine, framing technological dominance as a core national security goal in its sharpening rivalry with the US.