Beijing

CHINA's annual economic growth is likely to slow to 6.8 per cent next year from an expected 6.9 per cent this year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a working paper published on Wednesday.

The world's second largest economy still faces downward pressure, and the impact of fiscal and monetary policies that were rolled out this year will be evident by the first half of 2016, the central bank said in the research report. "Although downward pressures on growth will persist for a while due to overcapacity, profit deceleration and rising non-performing loans, we expect that the number of positive factors will gradually increase in 2016," it said.