Ahead of China's official release later this month of its GDP data for the October-December period and 2016, Xu Shaoshi, director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at a media briefing in Beijing said that he expects China's 2016 GDP growth around 6.7 percent.
He said that China's economic growth remains far from the possibility of a "hard landing" suggested by some experts. Government's ongoing economic reforms have optimized China's industrial structure, he added.
Xu's comments follow China’s consumer inflation data which slowed in December, losing speed for the first time in four months, according to official data released on Tuesday. But producer inflation quickened at a pace much faster than economists expected.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs think the Chinese real GDP growth target is likely to be 6.5%, or very close to it (versus the 2016 target range of 6.5%-7.0%). If anything, risks at this point may be skewed slightly to the upside for the full-year number given strong momentum into year end 2016, said Goldman Sachs in a report.
