BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s ruling Communist Party will meet in October to map out the country’s social and economic development over the next five years, as the nation seeks to maintain economic momentum while fending off trade conflicts with the West.
Members of the Central Committee, the largest of the party’s top decision-making bodies, will convene a plenary session, or plenum, from October 20-23, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. It will be the fourth since the party’s last congress in 2022.
Congresses are held every five years to chart China’s social and economic policy goals. Some seven closed-door plenums are convened in between congresses, with the fifth plenum traditionally focusing on deliberations for five-year plans.
But due to an unexplained nine-month-long delay in the third plenum until July 2024, the party is expected to now review the 2026-2030 plan at the fourth plenum before the end of the year.
The next five years will be a key opportunity for policy makers to shift the economy towards domestic consumption from a model led by trade and investment.
Immediate challenges include immense deflationary pressures stemming from a prolonged property downturn; eroded consumer confidence; and more recently manufacturing overcapacity and price wars in sectors from electric vehicles to online food delivery platforms.
Five-year plans are usually published at the start of China’s annual parliamentary meeting in March.
The upcoming fourth plenum will be held about a week before President Xi Jinping visits South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit where he is expected to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose tariffs have clouded China’s short- and medium-term economic outlook.
(Reporting by Joe Cash and Ryan Woo; Editing by Tom Hogue and Thomas Derpinghaus.)
