1st LD-Writethru: China can double 2010 GDP with 6.3-pct growth in 2018-2020

BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- China needs annualized growth of 6.3 percent in 2018-2020 to realize the target of doubling the 2010 GDP by 2020, an official said Saturday.

"Judging from current economic performance, there will not be any huge barrier in meeting the goal," Yang Weimin, deputy head of the office of the central leading group on financial and economic affairs, said at an economics forum.

Five years ago, China decided to double 2010 GDP and per-capita income by 2020 as an important component of becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

GDP expanded 6.9 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2017, above the government's target of around 6.5 percent for the whole year.

In a report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, no more GDP-doubling target was mentioned, showing China's emphasis on development quality rather than fast expansion.

"High-quality development is the fundamental requirement for determining the development path, making economic policies and conducting macroeconomic regulation," said a statement following the central economic work conference on Wednesday.

"The theme of economic development will become high-quality development, instead of rapid growth," Yang said.

The potential growth rate has changed due to upgraded consumption, financial risk and environmental constraints, he added.

"If China ignores these realities and continues to be obsessed with fast growth rates, the concomitant risks will outweigh the increase in GDP," Yang said.

China must build and improve mechanisms for pushing forward high-quality development, including indicators, policies, standards, statistical and performance assessment systems, according to the Wednesday statement.

Realizing high-quality development is a must for sustaining healthy economic development and adapting to the country's new principal contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life, it said. Enditem