• Home
• /
• Economy
• /
• Business

China firm to cut up to 50,000 jobs

Beijing - China's economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century last year and its outlook remains bleak.

By AFP

• Follow us on
• 
• 
• 

Published: Fri 11 Mar 2016, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Sun 13 Mar 2016, 11:49 AM

One of China's largest steelmakers plans to shed up to 50,000 jobs, its chairman said, as the country struggles to reduce overcapacity while growth in the world's second-largest economy slows.
The comments by Ma Guoqiang, the head of state-owned group Wuhan Iron and Steel, are a stark illustration of the challenges facing Beijing as it seeks to retool the economy while avoiding social unrest - anathema to the leadership.
The firm's steel division currently has 80,000 employees but might retain only 30,000 of them, Ma said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, the country's rubber-stamp parliament.
"Probably 40,000-50,000 people will have to find other ways forward," he told people.com.cn, a news portal run by the Communist Party's mouthpiece the People's Daily, according to a transcript on the website.
China's economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century last year and its outlook remains bleak, with the government last week lowering its 2016 growth target to 6.5-7 per cent, down from "about seven percent" previously.
Authorities have prioritised reducing borrowing, overcapacity and inventory as they seek to maintain growth