Premier Li calls on six provinces to lead in driving growth

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called on six provinces to take the lead in supporting the country’s growth after data for July showed a slowdown across the board.

Retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment data released Monday missed analysts’ expectations and marked a slowdown from June. It comes as China’s economy registered growth of just 2.5% in the first half of the year.

“Now is the most critical juncture for economic rebound,” Li said at a meeting Tuesday, according to an English-language readout. He called for “resolute and prompt efforts” to strengthen the foundation for recovery.

Much of that responsibility lies with six “economically strong provinces” that account for 45% of national GDP, the readout said. It said the six provinces also make up nearly 60% of the national total for trade and foreign investment.

The leaders of the coastal, export-heavy provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong spoke via video at an economic meeting with Li on Tuesday, the readout said. Leaders of the landlocked provinces of Henan and Sichuan also spoke.

The province-level municipalities of Shanghai and Beijing were not mentioned.

“Investment will accelerate in the six provinces as [the] central government will offer [a] green light to major investment projects,” said Yue Su, principal economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit. She said the provinces might even get assigned their own targets for measures like employment.

“Although there’s no emphasis on the [national] GDP target, the premier still attaches great importance to the growth rate by mentioning development [as] the key to resolving all problems,” she said.

At the high-level Politburo meeting in late July, China’s leaders indicated the country might miss its GDP target of around 5.5% for the year.

They also said then that “provinces with the conditions to achieve the economic targets should strive to,” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese.

The six provinces that were highlighted at Tuesday’s meeting had set GDP targets ranging from 5.5% to 6.5%, for a median goal of 5.75% growth. That’s according to CNBC calculations of figures published by state media.

In terms of actual growth in the first half of the year, that median was 2.65%, according to CNBC calculations of official data for the six provinces accessed through Wind Information. The provincial GDP growth rates ranged from 1.6% to 3.6% during that time.

Tuesday’s meeting highlighted the six provinces’ importance to fiscal revenue.

The four coastal provinces account…