China's GDP growth may slip below 7 percent in the first quarter, and fall to 6.8 percent annually - both lower than the government's target - as momentum in the property sector and infrastructure investment remain weak, Nomura Securities Co Ltd said on Thursday.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings Inc, the financial services group and global investment bank based in Tokyo, has cut its first quarter growth prediction to 6.9 percent from 7.1 percent, after a raft of official Chinese economic data revealed multi-year lows in January and February.

"It is hard to see an obvious rebound in March and we expect a further downturn may remain until the third quarter," said Zhao Yang, Nomura's chief economist in China.