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China looks to ease growth pace
 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao claps as he prepares for a press conference after the NPC session Tuesday. RELATEDYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- China is looking to ease back on the economic growth throttle over the next five years, following half a decade in which the country's economy has surged ahead at almost 10 percent a year. That red-hot pace has lifted China to a position as the world's fourth-largest economy in 2006, behind the United States, Japan and Germany, and ahead of the United Kingdom and France. But its new target is an average 7.5 percent a year between now and 2010, as the Beijing leadership strives to improve China's economic efficiency and soothe some of the social strains that are emerging among its 1.3 billion people, about 150 million of whom live below the international poverty line. On Tuesday, the government set out its 11th five-year plan covering 2006-2010, in which it forecasts a 7.5 percent growth average on the basis of reduced energy consumption and pollution discharge, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Xinhua said China's parliament, the National People's Congress, endorsed the economic and social development plan with support from 97 percent of the 2,891 deputies attending Tuesday's NPC session. "The final validation of the Government's action plan for the next five years by the Parliament signifies China's major shift of economic policies from urban development and heavy investment in billion-dollar projects to boosting rural and sci-tech investment for sustainable development," Li Chong'an, an NPC deputy and vice-chairman of the NPC Law Committee, was quoted as saying by Xinhua. Sharply lowerPremier Wen Jiabao's work report projects economic growth this year will be 8 percent. That figure is substantially lower than estimates by other bodies such as the World Bank, which still envisages the economy expanding at 9 percent-plus in 2006. According to official statistics released in January, last year's rate was about 9.9 percent, with China also upgrading the size of the economy to incorporate robust growth in the long-ignored service sector. Slower growth in China this year would have a significant impact on the global economy. China is already the world's No. 3 exporter, and a major consumer of commodities such as oil, iron ore, coal and copper. China's total measurable economic output in 2005 was $2.2 trillion, for a per capita income of $1,700. But that may understate the true picture. Chicago-based economist David Hale, who has just completed a landmark study of China's growth, says that on a purchasing-power basis, China's real GDP is "probably already at $5 to 6 trillion and thus No. 2 in the world." Analysts such as Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's Hong Kong-based Asia chief economist, believe China must look to boost domestic consumption to help overcome social instability at home and trade friction abroad. Xie has suggested more income support for rural families as one way to narrow the gap between rich urban consumers and the hundreds of millions of rural poor. The government has already acknowledged that heading off the growing levels of tension because of this income disparity is one of its priority tasks (Full story). China will stress social equity "for the ultimate goal of easing social confrontations and maintaining social stability," Dr. Ding Yuanzhu, of the Macro-Economic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted as saying by Xinhua. 
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