China will hit growth target, avoid hard landing: Li Keqiang

Beijing

CHINA's Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Wednesday declared that the country would achieve its growth target this year and avoid mass layoffs.

Hinting that growth has, for now, trumped reform as the No 1 item on Beijing's agenda, he told reporters at the Great Hall of the People, after the closure of the National People's Congress: "It is impossible to side with the view that we will not meet our growth target."