China expects annual growth to slow to 7 per cent this year, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei was quoted as saying on Friday, below the government's broad target of 7.5 per cent. China's "expected growth" was 7 per cent this year, the semi-official China News Service quoted Lou as saying following talks with US officials in Washington. "There shouldn't be too many problems in achieving this year's expected growth," he said. China's economy grew at 7.7 per cent in the first quarter and second-half growth would probably be slightly lower, Lou was quoted as telling reporters. Full-year growth of 7 per cent would imply second-half growth falling to about 6.4 per cent. The official Xinhua news agency quoted Lou as saying it was "no big problem to achieve the 7 per cent annual growth target," but the ruling Communist Party has not announced any change in its earlier target of 7.5 per cent. Any change in the official target could be announced on Monday, when the government is scheduled to report second-quarter growth, which most analysts expect to slow to about 7.5 per cent. Annual growth of the world's second-largest economy fell to 7.8 per cent last year, the slowest since 1999.
