National statistics official predicts economic growth for China

The deputy head of the China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Bureau of Statistics, affiliated to the National Bureau of Statistics, predicts China's economic growth could be at 6.8 or 6.9 percent by the end of the first half of the year.

Pan Jiancheng, who made the remark on Wednesday, said China's growth was better than expected and more optimized in structure during the first six months of the year, and improving indicators, increasing jobs, stable prices and a sound balance of international payments.

Pan added both industrial and tertiary industry growth were improving, and consumption has become a major pillar of growth, which indicated the inherent growth momentum of the economy was getting stronger.

"Growth in the second half of this year may ease due to a higher base of growth in the same period of 2016," he said.

"There is a possible weakening of the real estate sector and changes in international trade environment, but there should be no doubt the country will meet its goal of achieving a growth of around 6.5 percent for the year."

Pan said, however, the world's second-largest economy could also face some challenges.

"The real estate prices, for example, remain resilient; but there are expectations for rising home prices, especially in smaller cities, which could lead to increasing real estate investment," he said.

"However, such investment is mainly dependent on bank loans and individual mortgage funds, which raises the level of leverage and increases risks for the financial sector."