Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Mr Song Guoqing an academic advisor to the central bank's monetary policy committee as saying on Saturday that China's economic growth may be as high as 7.3 percent this year, partly due to falling commodity prices.

He said that “China's consumer price index may rise in 2015 by about 1.6 percent as the sharp decline in prices of commodities including crude oil, iron ore and copper presents a large bonus for the economy.”

Xinhua said Song's views were echoed by Ma Jun, chief economist of the People's Bank of China's research bureau in a report in mid December China's economic growth could slow to 7.1 percent in 2015 from an expected 7.4 percent last year.

China's annual economic growth likely slowed to 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the weakest since the depths of the global crisis. The expected slowdown in growth from 7.3 percent in the June-September quarter, means the full-year figure would undershoot the government's 7.5 percent target and mark the weakest expansion in 24 years.