Premier Li warns 'formidable difficulty' in 2015

Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday warned "formidable difficulty" in 2015, setting a slower growth target, but stressed his confidence in the ongoing reform to start new development engines.

The annual government work report, delivered by Li at the opening meeting of the national legislature's annual session, set this year's economic growth target at 7 percent, lower than last year's target and the 7.4-percent actual growth in 2014. [Special coverage]

Other economic indices such as consumer price index (CPI), set at 3 percent, and unemployment rate at 4.5 percent are also slightly lower than last year.

Predicting the situation in 2015, the Premier admitted that the difficulties China is to face may be "even more formidable" than last year, with downward pressure on the economy building up and deep-seated problems in development surfacing.

Summarizing weaknesses in 2014's work, Li listed sluggish investment growth, relatively damp consumer demand, increasing labor cost, inefficient growth model, overcapacity, weak rural infrastructure and serious pollution.

He also expressed dissatisfaction over the implementation of some policies and denounced laziness and corruption among a small number of civil servants.

However, Li said he is "fully confident" as China's development has enormous potential and is hugely resilient, with ample room for growth.

The Premier stressed that the growth rate is "both aligned with our goal of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and is appropriate in terms of the need to grow and upgrade our economy."

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