At the Second Session of the 12th National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 5, 2014, Premier Li Keqiang announced that the government has set gross domestic product (GDP) target at 7.5 percent for the year.

Given that the global economy is facing headwinds and the Chinese economy is itself slowing down, he has provided a leeway to the government by adding that the 7.5 percent figure is not set in stone and that there is a possibility that the country may post a higher or lower number in 2014.

Although the 7.5 percent target is pretty impressive, especially when compared to the poor GDP figures the advanced countries are seeing, it is still short of the growth China was witnessing just a couple of years ago.