Economic growth rate in China for 2002 will be set at around seven percent, Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, said in Beijing on Wednesday.

Other major targets for national economic and social development in 2002 are as follows:

- Increase in total fixed-asset investment around 10 percent.

- Rise in the consumer price level of one to two percent.

- Strive for an increase in total import and export volume.

- Central budget deficit under 309.8 billion yuan.

- Increase in M2, the broad money supply, and M1, the narrow money supply, of about 13 percent with total cash put into circulation not exceeding 150 billion yuan.

- Registered urban unemployment rate around 4.5 percent.

- Natural population growth rate under 0.8 percent.

Zeng revealed the targets in his Report on the Implementation of the 2001 Plan for National Economic and Social Development and on the Draft 2002 Plan for National Economic and Social Development, to the second plenary meeting of the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC).

The year 2002 is of vital significance in China's history as well as an important year for promoting the reform, opening up and the modernization drive, he said.

"We will boost domestic demand, deepen the reform, open wider to the outside world, accelerate the economic restructuring, rectify and standardize order in the market and improve the quality of economic growth and the performance of the national economy to promote its sustained, rapid and sound development and all-round social progress," the top planner said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2002)