China set to miss annual growth target

As the National Bureau of Statistics prepares to release its final economic data of 2014 on Tuesday, economists say that despite economic growth retreating to a 24-year low they do not expect any aggressive policy stimuli as top leaders appear happy to accept a "new normal" rate of development.

International and local financial institutions were practically united on a GDP growth prediction of 7.4 percent for last year, a drop from 7.7 percent in 2013 and the first time in 16 years that the government has missed its annual growth target.

Premier Li Keqiang issued 2014's economic growth target of 7.5 percent in March. The last time the world's second largest economy missed its target was in 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. GDP growth that year was 7.8 percent that year, against an 8 percent target.