Politburo focuses on growth ahead of Li Keqiang's first work report

Top leaders in Beijing have pledged to keep the economy growing within a "reasonable range" while forging ahead on economic reforms, setting the tone for Premier Li Keqiang's first annual work report next week.

The government will continue to maintain "proactive fiscal and prudent monetary policies", the Politburo, the Communist Party's decision-making body, said. It did not provide a forecast for economic growth.

The central government is trying to rebalance the economy to rely less on exports and government-debt-fuelled spending by increasing the country's domestic consumption.

A meeting of top Communist Party leaders in November outlined a series of economic reforms, including opening up more sections of the economy to private enterprise.

The Politburo meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping , discussed the government work report Li will deliver to the annual session of National People's Congress, the national legislature, on March 5.

Shen Jianguang, chief China economist at Mizuho Securities Asia, said the statement suggested the government was committed to maintaining steady economic growth, despite saying at the party plenum in November that priority would be given to the reform programme.

"A reasonable range means an annual growth rate in GDP of between 7 and 8 per cent," Shen said.