The National People's Congress meeting was held in Beijing on Monday.
Commodities from iron-ore to copper fell after China set a cautious economic growth target of about 5% for the year and didn’t announce any major new stimulus.
The goal unveiled at the National People’s Congress (NPC) was below what most economists had been expecting, and may reflect a desire to restore credibility after Beijing missed last year’s target by a wide margin. The lack of measures focused on sectors like real estate and infrastructure is a disappointment for metals markets.
None of the official documents released so far at the NPC suggests authorities are keen on the kind of massive boost deployed to right the economy after the global financial crisis or at the beginning of the pandemic. The target for local government bond sales — the backbone of infrastructure investment that drives the bulk of raw materials demand — was also modest.
“It looks likely that China’s infrastructure‑related commodity demand impulse may ease this year” and it’s less likely to use debt to prop up the economy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note. However, raw materials consumption will probably remain strong in the first half on pent-up demand from the re-opening at the end of last year, he said.
Iron-ore dropped 2.1% to $122.80 a ton as of 9:11 a.m. in Singapore. Copper fell 0.5% to $8 943 a ton on the London Metal Exchange and zinc lost 0.5%. Brent oil moved 0.4% lower, while gold was down 0.2%.
There was some good news from the NPC for agricultural markets. Beijing announced it would push to increase grain production capacity by 50-million tons a year as part of its drive to bolster food security. No set timeline for the target was given, however.
China’s grain harvest was 686.55-million tons in 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a report, and has been stable at over 650 million tons since 2015, according to state media.
Corn rose 0.3% on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, while soymeal was up 0.5%.