<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>China is on course to achieve its five percent target for economic growth in 2023 set by Beijing earlier this year, premier Li Qiang said Tuesday.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>"For the whole year, we are expected to achieve the target of about five percent economic growth set at the beginning of this year," Li said as he opened a meeting of global political and business leaders in northern China.</div><div><br></div><div>"Recently, some international organisations and institutions have also raised their forecasts for China's economic growth this year, showing their confidence in China's development prospects," Li added at the World Economic Forum.</div><div>China is grappling with a slowing post-Covid recovery, with a number of lacklustre indicators in recent weeks signalling the rebound is running out of steam.</div><div><br></div><div>Beijing's central bank last week cut two key interest rates in a bid to counter the slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.</div><div><br></div><div>Reports this month have suggested Beijing is lining up a tranche of measures targeting multiple areas of the economy, particularly the real estate sector, which makes up a huge portion of gross domestic product.</div><div><br></div><div>Beijing set an economic growth target of "around five percent" in March, one of its lowest in decades as it emerged from strict zero-Covid rules that hammered business activity.</div><div><br></div><div>Premier Li at the time admitted the target would be "no easy task".</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>