Chen made the comment in a speech to a conference. His remarks echo those made by an official from the National Bureau of Statistics in October when economic data for the third quarter revealed annual growth had dipped to 7.4 percent.

China's growth rate has slowed for seven successive quarters and is on course for its weakest full year of expansion since 1999, albeit at a pace that far outstrips the rest of the world's major economies.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect China, the world's second biggest economy, to grow by 7.7 percent in 2012.