China has set a bottom line of 7% for economic growth in 2015 and a pace below that level would hurt confidence in the world's second largest economy, a government researcher said in an interview with the official Shanghai Securities News. Chen Dongqi, a vice president at the National Development and Reform Commission's Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said China would not allow economic growth to slip below the 7% level in the near term, though there would be some flexibility around for growth to be above and below that level. "If the government has a positive attitude and keeps the 7% bottom line, it will uphold people's comparative optimistic expectations towards China's economy," he said in the interview. "Confidence is more valuable than gold." Some economists have said that China may fall short of the official economic growth target of about 7.5% this year as the economy faces increased downward pressure. China's top leaders, following a three-day policy meeting, said that the main economic targets for 2014 were within reach. China's economic growth slowed to 7.3% in the third quarter, down from 7.5% in the second quarter and 7.7% last year. The market predicts that Beijing is likely to cut its growth target for 2015 to 7% and give more rooms for reforms. Mr. Chen said the monetary policy may be looser next year than in 2014 and expand its deficit by 0.3 percentage point next year. China's deficit is 2.1% to its gross domestic product in 2014. He said a growth rate of above 5% will be enough to maintain China's employment target of creating 10 million jobs a year. marketwatch