China sticks to prudent monetary policy: central bank governor

BEIJING, March 12  -- Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Thursday that China is sticking to the prudent monetary policy despite the use of a string of new monetary policy tools.

Zhou made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature annual session, adding that compared with the large scale of Chinese economy, the scale of of those monetary policy tools is not big.

With an economic slowdown, the Chinese economy has entered a "new normal" era, but that means neither the economy is in a condition troubled by particular problems, nor the nation's monetary policy will shift gears, he said.

There will be some "flexibility" of the prudent monetary policy, he said.

China's gross domestic product expanded 7.4 percent last year, its lowest level of growth since 1990. The annual economic growth target for 2015 was set at around 7 percent.