Continued downward pressure in 2015

In the first three quarters of this year, China's GDP grew by 7.4 percent, or 0.1 points short of the planned annual target of 7.5 percent. The housing market experienced an unprecedented decline in prices and sales in the country's 70 major cities, implying that the pressure on economic growth is historically high, because a chilly housing sector could have massive repercussions on the national economy.

Given the tough external economic environment and rising costs of production in the country, China has managed to maintain a relatively high growth of more than 7 percent. But because of the slowdown in the housing market, the efforts to contain industrial pollution and overcapacity, and the national strategy to change the economic growth model, the government faces tough challenges and constraints in maintaining a relatively high and sustainable growth rate.

The main challenge is how to balance high growth and economic structural change.