Growth forecast to exceed 7% in 2013 (2)

Nearly 60 percent of the economists surveyed do not support removing the current restrictions on the real estate market, and a similar proportion said housing prices will rise along with the transaction volume.

The survey was carried out on the eve of the annual Central Economic Work Conference reportedly to be held this weekend, which is expected to set the growth target for 2013 at 7.5 percent and focus on the quality and efficiency of growth.

The result echoed another survey by Wind Information Co Ltd of 41 institutional analysts which put next year's growth rate at 7.9 percent.

China's economic growth rate fell to 7.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, a level that remains enviable globally but is seen by analysts as a trough after years of rapid development. Most of them estimated the figure will pick up to above 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

Zhang Zhiwei, China chief economist at Nomura Securities Co Ltd, said the country's GDP growth is expected to bounce back to more than 8 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2013, then slow in the second half toward 7 percent by the fourth quarter.

Zhang predicted that whole-year growth in 2013 is likely to be 7.7 percent.