Regional growth forecasts mapped out

Several Chinese provinces and municipalities have released economic forecasts for last year's growth, and some of them downgraded their economic prospects for this year amid the expected global downturn.

But economists said as the country makes its monetary and fiscal policy more accommodative, growth in the world's second-largest economy could stop slipping and start to pick up in the second half of this year.

Gross domestic product in East China's Jiangsu province is predicted to climb 6.7 percent to 9.2 trillion yuan ($1.36 trillion) last year, Wu Zhenglong, governor of Jiangsu province, said while delivering the annual provincial government work report.