Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said historically growth figures tend to turn out higher than pre-set targets, as some local governments initially err on the cautious side - but he added this year's targets, which largely mirror last year's list, do reflect a realism among provincial-level government economic departments that overall national growth will remain slower than the years up to 2012.
For example, both Guangdong and Zhejiang have set 8 percent growth targets for 2013, against their 2012 goal of 8.5 percent.
Strikingly, said experts, the country's vast central and western regions are setting the pace, with most still aiming for double-digit acceleration this year, as they aspire to continue the "leapfrogging" development seen in recent years, and as they grow faster than some of China's traditional economic hotspots.
Part of that optimism lies in last year's good performance.
Of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, 29 beat national economic growth of 7.8 percent last year.
The only exceptions were Beijing and Shanghai, which grew 7.7 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.
A compilation of the local figures shows that China's GDP is expected to hit 57.69 trillion yuan ($9.15 trillion) in 2012, some 5.76 trillion yuan more than the national GDP figure released by the central government.
That's a gap the equivalent to Guangdong's GDP, which will only add to skepticism by some media of the authenticity of local government data.
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