China set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent on Wednesday, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as an escalating trade war with the United States hit exports.

Beijing also announced a rare hike in fiscal funding, allowing its budget deficit to reach four percent this year as it battles stuttering employment for young people, stubbornly low consumer demand and a persistent property sector debt crisis.

The headline growth figure announced by Premier Li Qiang at an annual Communist Party conclave was broadly in line with an AFP survey of analysts, although experts say it is ambitious considering the scale of China's economic challenges.

Some 12 million new jobs will be created in Chinese cities under the plans as Beijing pushes for two percent inflation this year.

A government work report vowed to make domestic demand the "main engine and anchor" of growth, adding that Beijing should "move faster to address inadequate domestic demand, particularly insufficient consumption".

And in a rare move, Li said China would hike its fiscal deficit by one percentage point -- its........

© International Business Times