China will escape the middle-income trap and become one of the high-income countries recognized by the World Bank by 2023, said Xu Hongcai, an economist from the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.
Xu thinks the per capita national income target of US$12,000 can be achieved, as long as the growth of residential income is in line with economic growth over the following years.
As the Chinese economy has entered a period of the “new normal” — a policy put forward to justify the economic slowdown — Xu thinks GDP growth will continue to be above 6.5% by 2020, but it could also decline to 5% by 2025, and drop to 4% in 2030.
As for the per capita national income, Xu is confident that that figure will surpass US$10,000 in 2020, having already reached the level of US$8,000 in 2016.