China premier warns 2023 growth target 'no easy task'

China's new Premier Li Qiang warned of 'many new challenges' to economic growth.

BEIJING - China's new premier warned Monday that the country's five-percent growth target for 2023 would not be "easy" to achieve, as its rubber-stamp parliament wrapped up over a week of meetings.

The government set the economic growth target of "around five percent" this month, one of the lowest in decades as China emerged from strict zero-Covid rules that dragged on its GDP.