China’s economy will not suffer a hard landing even as it braces itself for a further slowdown this year, according to Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

“The Chinese economy will face downward pressures in 2015. But it will not head for a hard landing,” he said in a keynote speech at the 45th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

In 2014, China posted its slowest growth rate in 24 years, with full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.4%.

Li said his government will press on with structural reforms, including liberalising its services sector, promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, protecting intellectual property rights and deepening its capital markets.

“We will move towards the path of reforms. This way, we can shift gear without losing momentum and achieve medium-to-high-speed growth, and medium-to-high-level developments,” he said, whose text of speech was released by the WEF. Using the analogy of a skier at Davos, he promised that China will “go at the right speed, keep balance and be courageous”.

The government has prepared the nation to embrace the “new normal” as it focuses on quality rather than speed of growth, and shifts its focus from an export-investment-led model to one that is more reliant on consumption and the services sector, Li stated.

Li said China would eschew stimulus measures through monetary easing, and would instead step up investments in targeted areas, such as health, clean energy and transport, as well as provide support to the country’s small and medium enterprises, create employment for young people and optimise income distribution.

He added that China’s economic slowdown reflects the profound adjustments in the global economy and is consistent with its larger economic base. A GDP growth of 7%, he pointed out, produces an annual increase of US$800 billion (RM2.9 trillion) at current prices, larger than the 10% growth five years ago.

On the renminbi, Li said that as China’s international trade increases, more countries are demanding the use of its currency to settle trades and investments. Hence, the pool of offshore renminbi has gradually expanded in recent years.

Li said China is committed to opening up to the world, but the internationalisation of the renminbi is going to be a long-term process.