China cuts trade growth target to 'around 6%'

China on Thursday cut its trade growth target for this year to "around six percent", after it missed the goal in 2014 for the third consecutive year amid softened domestic and foreign demand.

The government expects two-way trade to "increase by around six percent" this year from 2014, according to Premier Li Keqiang's "work report" to the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's communist-controlled legislature.

The target last year was set at 7.5 percent, but actual growth came in significantly below that at just 3.4 percent, official data showed.

That was the third year in a row that the official goal has been missed.

The government has blamed slow recovery of the world economy and China's waning competitiveness due to rising costs within the country for the weak growth in trade last year.

China's economy, the second-largest in the world, rounded out a disappointing 2014, with growth slowing because of manufacturing weakness, falling property prices and high corporate and local government debt burdens.

Gross domestic product expanded at its lowest in almost a quarter of a century at 7.4 percent, and recent indicators show signs the slowdown is continuing.

Underscoring concern, the central People's Bank of China on Sunday cut benchmark interest rates for the second time in three months.

The government has lowered its economic growth target for this year to "approximately seven percent", Li said.