China sees 2015 GDP growth at 7%

Beijing - Real growth levels believed to be much weaker than official data suggest.

China economy likely grew by around seven per cent in 2015 and added 13 million new jobs, the top economic planning agency said on Tuesday as it announced the approval of more large infrastructure projects to avert the risks of a sharper slowdown.
China achieved its main economic targets in 2015, Li Pumin, spokesman for the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC) told a news conference on Tuesday, a week before official fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 figures will be released.
Li's comments come as a renewed plunge in Chinese stock markets and a sharp slide in the yuan currency have stoked concerns among global investors about the health of the world's second-largest economy, though there is little evidence that conditions in China have deteriorated dramatically in recent weeks.
Still, growth of seven per cent would be the slowest in a quarter of a century, and down from 7.3 per cent in 2014 as weak demand at home and abroad, industrial overcapacity and faltering investment weigh on the world's second-largest economy.
Some China watchers believe real growth levels are already much weaker than official data suggest, reinforcing expectations that the government will have to roll out more support measures this year.
China approved 280 fixed asset investment projects worth 2.52 trillion yuan ($383.44 billion) in 2015, Li said. Thirty-two projects worth 515.1 billion yuan were approved in December alone.
The government has flagged that it intends to spend more on infrastructure to shore up economic activity, but it has faced delays, partly due to slow loan distribution, poor initial planning and high local government debt levels.
"I think there is little connection between the falling stock markets and the real economy," said Shen Lan, an economist at Standard Chartered in Beijing. "Actually, economic indicators in November already showed the economy gained more momentum."
Vehicle sales in China, the world's largest car market, increased at their slowest pace in three years in 2015, industry group data showed on Tuesday, as slowing growth and volatile stock markets hit demand.
A total of 24.60 million cars were sold last year, up 4.7 per cent from 2014, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
That was down from a 6.9 per cent rise in 2014 and marked the slowest growth since 2012 when sales increased by 4.3 per cent, previous CAAM figures showed.
CAAM secretary general Dong Yang estimated purchase restrictions imposed in big cities pulled auto sales growth down by up to eight percentage points. - Agencies
, while extraordinary swings in the country's stock markets were responsible for a two percentage point drop.
"The 2015 car market downturn was to some extent accidental," Dong wrote in an article on CAAM's website.
Looking forward, "those factors should improve clearly and the auto market will not grow as slowly as in 2015", he added.
Sales may gain around six per cent this year to top 26 million units, CAAM said on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News.
China's auto industry felt the pinch of the country's slowing economic growth last year, with producers scaling back output and media reports of unusually long holidays at factories and decreased bonuses and overtime pay for workers.
Economic growth hit a 24-year low of 7.3 per cent in 2014 and slowed further last year, weakening to 6.9 per cent in the July-September period.
A spectacular rally in Chinese shares in the first half of 2015 attracted huge flows of funds into the stock markets, much of which became locked up in an ensuing rout, hitting consumers' budgets and dampening demand for cars.
To prop up the auto industry, the government cut purchase taxes by half on cars with small engines from October 1.