China economic powerhouse Guangdong sees GDP growth of 7% to 7.5% in 2016

Hu Chunhua, head of China's Communist Party.

BEIJING: China's southern Guangdong province expects economic growth of between 7-7.5 percent in 2016, said Hu Chunhua, the Communist Party boss of the economic and export powerhouse.

"Guangdong is like the rest of the country in facing great slowdown pressures," said Hu, following a meeting with the province's delegates in Beijing during the country's annual parliamentary session.

He singled out exports as one sector under even greater strain for the province, whose gross domestic product (GDP) is larger than Indonesia's.

"The influence of the global economy is bigger (for Guangdong) than in other places," Hu said, pointing out that the province, including the "world's factory" of the Pearl River Delta, accounted for one-quarter of China's overall exports.

This year's expected rate of growth is less than the 8 percent Guangdong recorded last year, Hu said, but above China's overall expected growth of 6.5-7 percent for 2016.

The national growth target was announced by China Premier Li Keqiang at the opening of the parliamentary session on Saturday.

Guangdong is faced with the substantial challenge of upgrading its low-value-added manufacturing sector, but it would push ahead with industrial restructuring and innovation, Hu told reporters in a news conference. -Reuters