China reduces growth target to 7%

China's central bank on Thursday lowered its full-year GDP growth forecast to 7 per cent from the previous estimate of 7.1 per cent issued in December as first-half economic momentum turned out to be weaker than expected in the world's second largest economy."But we have reason to expect some modest recovery in sequential growth in the second half," said the updated mid-year report by the People's Bank of China (PBoC).

China's economy slowed down to 7.4 per cent last year.

A forecast by the International Monetary Fund said China's growth rate would further decline to 6.8 this year and 6.3 next year.

"Overall economic conditions are worsening because of a faster-than-expected slowdown of exports and real estate investment, with the lowest indicators since the global financial crisis in 2008," the central bank's chief economist, Ma Jun, who wrote the mid-year report, was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.