The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is suggesting a downward adjustment on the 7.5-percent growth forecast set for 2015, according to the Global Times.
According to the daily Chinese tabloid, the state's planning agency has recently made a survey on local economic operations in a number of provinces and cities to learn more about the actual situation on the ground as basis for next year's forecasts. Based on the survey outcome, the NDRC said that the growth target for 2015 "will inevitably be revised down."
Citing a Market News International report, the Global Times also said that the country's Central Economic Work Conference, which is set to convene in December, "may likely cut" the 2015 growth target to about 7 percent or even lower.
Bloomberg News, based on its own survey of economists, said that a 2015 growth target of about 7 percent is expected.
In October, the World Bank urged China against carrying its "ambitious" 2014 economic growth target of 7.5 percent into next year, said Reuters.
At a media briefing, Karlis Smits, a senior economist at the World Bank office in Beijing, told reporters: "Our policy message is [that] the focus should be on reforms rather than meeting specific growth targets. In our view, an indicative target of around 7 percent for 2015 would meet . . . the kind of indicative growth that is needed to maintain stability in the labor market."
The economy expanded 7.3 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, its slowest pace in nearly six years. Despite this, the country's leadership saw no need for the imposition of a massive economic stimulus package. It has also opted to stick it out with its current prudent monetary policy.
Back in May, President Xi Jinping announced that China's economy has "entered a new normal," an apparent admission that the country's period of high-speed growth has come to an end. With the "new normal," growth can be expected to be slower but relatively more stable.
The official economic growth target for 2015, which is to be adopted at the upcoming Central Economic Work Conference in December, will be formally announced in March during the annual session of the China's National People's Congress.