China confident of meeting 2015 GDP target of around 7 percent: premier

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Premier Li Keqiang said he was confident China has the ability to meet its 2015 economic growth target of around 7 percent, the official news agency Xinhua said on Thursday. China is set for its slowest growth in a quarter of a century this year and has rolled out a series of measures since last year to shore up the flagging economy and reduce the risk of falling short of its official growth targets. "We have the ability and confidence to meet this target and to maintain medium-to-high speed economic growth," Li said, according to Xinhua. Li was speaking in Brazil where he has been announcing trade, finance and investment deals worth tens of billions of dollars in energy, mining, aviation. China's money supply grew at its slowest pace on record in April and investment growth sank to its lowest in nearly 15 years, suggesting the world's second-largest economy was still losing momentum despite a burst of interest rate cuts and other policy easing. More stimulus measures are expected in coming months. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Chen Yixin; Editing by Shri Navaratnam & Kim Coghill)