21st Century Business Herald reported that local governments have revised downward the forecasts of their economic growth. One reason is that the targets were set too high. Shanghai was the only one that had the same target rate as the national forecast of 7.5 percent. All other regions had much higher targets.
Although local governments sped up their investments earlier in the year, the actual growth has been lower than expected due to capacity surplus and weak demand. For example, Sichuan Province and Shanxi Province reported that the target growth rates of 11 percent and 12.5 percent respectively have been revised downward to 10 percent and 11.3 percent. For Beijing and Hebei Province, the original goals were 8 percent and 9 percent. In the first half of the year, the two economies reported growth of 7.7 percent and 8.7 percent.
Beijing municipal government has requested that the Beijing People’s Congress reduce the growth rate from 8 percent to 7.5 percent. An official of a provincial government stated, “We submitted a report recommending a downward revision of the economic growth rate for this year.”
Source: 21st Century Business Herald reprinted by i, October 8, 2013 http://finance.sina.com/bg/chinamkt/sinacn/20131008/1641875281.html