China lowers 2015 growth target to 7%

BEIJING: China lowered its 2015 economic growth target to “approximately 7 percent” Thursday, scaling down expectations in the face of “formidable” difficulties for the world’s second-largest economy after its decades-long boom.

The figure announced by Premier Li Keqiang is the lowest since a similar goal in 2004 and comes after China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.4 percent in 2014, the slowest pace in 24 years. Last year’s target was “about 7.5 percent.”