China's GDP growth will be 7.6 percent this year, enabling the economy to maintain momentum into 2014, the head of the country's top economic planning authority said on Wednesday.

This compares with 7.7 percent growth in 2012 and 9.3 percent in 2011, but it is higher than the yearly target of 7.5 percent, set at the start of 2013.

But Xu Shaoshi, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, also said that downward pressure on the economy is not to be taken lightly when China's "traditional growth model" faces challenges from a different market environment.