NPC: Highlights of Government Work Report

The annual full session of China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, got under way in Beijing on Friday morning. Discussion of the government's work report was the first item on the agenda.

In remarks that echoed his answers to questions raised in an online chat last weekend, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao warned that despite the country managing to make it through the "difficult" 2009 in good shape, 2010 would be a very "complex" year for China.

In his report to the NPC, the premier said the year 2010 was a crucial year in terms of the nation's ability to continue to cope with the global financial crisis and maintain a rapid and stable economic development while concurrently altering its economic growth model.

During his speech, Wen revealed a host of new government targets and previously unreleased economic figures. We've assembled some of the key figures below:

Major Targets for 2010
- GDP will grow by about 8 percent
- Provide over 9 million new jobs in urban areas
- Keep the rate of registered unemployed in urban areas below 4.6 percent
- Limit to CPI growth to around 3 percent

Fiscal Deficit
The nation's fiscal deficit for 2010 is budgeted at 1.05 trillion yuan, 200 billion yuan of which is due to treasury bonds issued by the central government on behalf of local governments.

New Lending
Around 7.5 trillion yuan of new loans will be issued in 2010

Agriculture
The central government plans to assign 818.3 billion yuan of spending to support the development of rural areas and agriculture.
The central government will allocate 133.5 billion yuan for direct subsidies to farmers.

Links and Sources
NPC: Highlights of Premier Wen's government work report