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reuters
BEIJING
China's economy is on track to meet its official growth target for 2017, the head of the state planning agency said on Saturday, despite a punishing war on pollution which is expected to slash industrial output over the winter months.
China has forced 28 cities in smog-prone northern regions to reduce emissions of airborne particles known as PM2.5 by at least 15 percent from October to March 2017, with some cities expected to cut steel production by as much as 50 percent.
But officials with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the world's second-largest economy will remain on track.
"We expect to achieve the full-year growth target of about 6.5 percent,"He Lifeng, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a briefing on the sidelines of China's Communist Party Congress.
Most economists believe China's actual growth should easily beat the target. The economy grew 6.8 percent in the third quarter of the year, and 6.9 percent in the first half. Last year's growth rate of 6.7 percent was a 26-year low.
China's economy has surprised global markets and investors with robust growth so far this year, driven by a renaissance in its long-ailing"smokestack"industries such as steel and stronger demand from Europe and the United States.
