China‘s leadership is targeting growth of less than 8 percent in 2012 a senior government researcher wrote on Friday in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.

Lin Zhaomu, a researcher affiliated with China's economic planning agency and the author of key economic documents for the Chinese leadership, wrote that the 2012 target fell between 7 and 8 percent and had been adjusted to help Beijing deliver on its plan for average GDP growth of 7 percent in 2011-2015.

A government adviser, who declined to be identified, separately told Reuters that the leadership had set a 7.5 percent growth target for 2012 at the annual economic working conference last month, Beijing’s top economic planning event.