As banks and economic think tanks anticipate the publishing of China's full-year 2014 economic data in late January, many are predicting slow but higher quality growth for the world's second largest economy in 2015.
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The most recent report by Standard Chartered forecast China's GDP to further decelerate to 7.1 percent in 2015 from an expected 7.3 percent in 2014.
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A more moderate growth rate with stable growth engines is being hailed as the "new normal" for China's economy.
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In the third quarter of 2014, growth slid to a low of 7.3 percent, a rate not seen since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis, dragged down by a housing slowdown, softening domestic demand and unsteady exports.
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The bank based its forecast on the trend already shown in 2014, with growth in electricity, cement and steel-product production - all considered reliable indicators of industrial production and fixed asset investment - falling by an average 8 percentage points.
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Standard Chartered forecast was in line with the outlook provided by China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, which predicted the country's GDP growth would "slow modestly" in 2015 to 7.1 percent.
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In its working paper released in December, the central bank estimated the country's GDP growth for 2014 at 7.4 percent.
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 As banks and economic think tanks anticipate the publishing of China's full-year 2014 economic data in late January, many are predicting slow but higher quality growth for the world's second largest economy in 2015.
