(Bloomberg) -- China should aim for at least 5% growth in gross domestic product in 2023 and move urgently to lift the economy from its current slowdown, according to a central bank adviser and prominent state-linked economist.

If China can “largely or completely get rid of the impact of the pandemic in the first half of next year” and implement various policies to stabilize the economy, actual growth could be higher than 5% in 2023, Liu Shijin, a member of the monetary policy committee of the People’s Bank of China, said in a speech at the Caixin Summit in Beijing on Friday.

“The urgent priority now is to get economic growth back to a normal track and reasonable range,” he said, adding that the current rate of expansion being too low is bad for long-term development goals. An extended downturn will damage productivity and the yuan exchange rate, and cities that were locked down suffered long-lasting economic damage, Liu said.

Favorable conditions are increasing after recent steps were taken to address the impact of Covid Zero policies on the economy and ease the property downturn, according to Liu. The country should aim for an average GDP growth of 5% for the 2022-2023 period, as it’s difficult for growth to reach that level this year, Liu said. 

The government has downplayed its official GDP target of “around 5.5%” for this year amid a sharp slowdown in growth, with economists polled by Bloomberg forecasting just 3.3% for the year. 

In order to achieve China’s goal of becoming a “medium-developed country” by 2035 and double per-capita GDP, the economy needs to grow at an average speed of 4.7% until then, Liu said, adding that it would be difficult. 

Another way to achieve the 2035 goal would be to improve overall productivity, he said. Doing so would lead to the appreciation of the yuan against the US dollar, similar to what happened in Japan and Germany in the two decades following the 1970s, he said. 

Several other economists with state connections also urged the government to address downbeat growth at the Caixin conference.

Yang Weimin, a senior economic official at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the top political advisory body, called on authorities to “make a strong push” to get growth back on track in 2023. “Economic growth this year is not within a reasonable range, and the biggest risk to economic development now is that the growth rate is too low,” Yang said in a speech.

Huang Yiping, a Peking University professor and a former PBOC adviser, called for more government spending on public welfare next year in order to support consumption. Peng Wensheng, chief economist of China International Capital Corp, urged the government to optimize Covid controls and hand out subsidies to people who suffered the most from the pandemic.

(Updates with additional detail in the sixth paragraph.)

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