Graphic shows that China's GDP change from 2006 to 2011, delivered at the Fifth Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress on March 5, 2012. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

China lowered its GDP growth target to 7.5 percent this year after projecting it around 8 percent for seven consecutive years, in face of global turbulence and a pressing domestic demand for economic restructuring.

By setting a slightly lower GDP growth rate, China hopes to achieve "higher-level, higher-quality development over a longer period of time," Premier Wen Jiabao said at the opening of the annual parliamentary session Monday.

To achieve steady growth, the government will continue to expand domestic demand and keep foreign demand stable, vigorously develop the real economy, so as to counter instability and uncertainty at home and abroad, Wen told nearly 3,000 deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) when delivering a government work report.

The lowered target is in line with the theme of this year's economic and social development of "making progress while maintaining stability" at a central economic work conference in December, said Ye Qing, a local statistical official of Hubei Province and a NPC deputy.

REALISTIC GOAL

The lowered target was seen as "realistic" by economists and the country's legislators, as new pressure from home and abroad has put a brake on the country's growth.

China's economy expanded by 9.2 percent in 2011 to 47.16 trillion yuan (about 7.49 trillion U.S. dollars) from a year earlier after it grew 10.4 percent in 2010.