(Yicai Global) Nov. 18 -- China should propose an economic growth target of at least 5 percent for next year, two former government officials suggested at an economic forum today.

“China’s economic growth rate in the past three years has been below potential, and this situation cannot be sustained,” Liu Shijin, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at the ongoing Caixin Summit. The four-day event concludes tomorrow.

Currently, the potential growth rate of China’s economy is 5 percent to 5.5 percent, noted Liu, who was deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, a high-level government think tank.

The economy is likely to average actual growth of less than 5 percent in 2020, 2021 and 2022 since reaching 5 percent this year is going to be difficult. This is because even though actual growth averaged 5.1 percent in 2020 and 2021, it was only 3 percent in the first three quarters of this year because of various unforeseeable factors, he added.

Yang Weimin, another deputy director of the CPPCC’s Economic Committee, pointed out that the biggest risk to economic development is that the growth rate is too low. This situation must be reversed in time, and efforts need to be made to return the economy to a reasonable range next year.

Economic growth that persistently slips out of a reasonable range must be reversed as it will have a significant impact on the internal mechanism of the economy and the vitality of economic development, said Yang, former secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Conditions favorable for the recovery of China’s economy are increasing with the introduction and adoption of the latest policies on Covid-19, the real estate market, and promoting the development of the internet platform economy, Liu noted.

Due to lower bases in 2022, a higher 2023 actual growth rate is feasible as long as various measures to stabilize it are implemented properly, he added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Peter Thomas