Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that the downward adjustment in the Chinese economy reflected the wider world economy.
Mr Li told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Chinese economy would continue to feel downward pressure in 2015.
China announced on Monday that growth slowed to 7.4% in 2014, and said fourth-quarter growth was 7.3%, slightly higher than markets had expected.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank should launch unlimited buying of eurozone government bonds for as long as it takes to raise inflation and revive the economy, the head of the OECD think-tank said.
Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said ECB President Mario Draghi should be given a free hand for bold action.
"Let Mario go as far as he can. I don't think he should cap it," Mr Gurria told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Don't say 500 billion (euro). Just say 'as far as we can, as far as we need it'."
Mr Gurria was speaking on the eve of a crucial decision on launching so-called quantitative easing by printing money to buy sovereign bonds.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is among 40 heads of state and government attending the forum, which got under way today.
The overall theme is 'The New Global Context' and excessive inequality in the world economy is likely to be a major theme.
A proposed quantitative easing programme from the ECB is also expected to be on the agenda.
Terrorism, the price of oil and the future of the internet will also be under discussion.
More than 2,500 participants from 140 countries are expected to attend the forum.
1700 private jets expected to Davos in Switzerland to discuss climate change at World Economic Forum pic.twitter.com/RUbMDYYksT
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 20, 2015US is bright spot for Davos CEOs in troubled economy
Chief executives are more worried than a year ago about the global economic outlook, as deflation stalks Europe and commodity prices wilt, but the US stands out as a bright spot.
That is the verdict of a worldwide survey of more than 1,300 CEOs, released on the eve of the forum.
The survey also found that business leaders are still moderately confident in their own firms' ability to grow revenues.
Seven years on from the financial crisis that brought the global economy to the brink, there are a host of new geopolitical issues to worry about today, from turmoil in the Middle East to fighting in Ukraine to protests in Hong Kong.
Those confrontations all have economic knock-ons, adding to a wariness that has been compounded by recent market volatility, including a rocketing Swiss franc which has shocked locals in the ski resort of Davos.
"There's a fair amount of concern about the economy," said Dennis Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) International, which conducted the annual CEO health check.
"There's probably more negativity thus far in 2015, which is really a continuation of the theme from the fourth quarter of last year," he said.
Just 37% of CEOs think global economic growth will improve in the year ahead, down from 44% last year. 17% think growth will decline, more than twice as many as in 2014.
But when it comes to their own businesses, 39% of bosses said they were "very confident" of growing revenues in the next 12 months, an unchanged reading from a year earlier and slightly up from 36% in 2013.
That steady internal confidence is helped by the fact executives see opportunities to use technology to move their companies into new business areas.
The pendulum has swung further away from many emerging markets over the past year, with the notable exception of India, where the arrival of pro-business Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the country's CEOs the most confident in the world.
Russia, however, has plunged from top of the confidence table a year ago to having the gloomiest business leaders, as a tumbling oil price and Western sanctions take a heavy toll.
Confidence in China, too, is down and the country is no longer the automatic go-to market for multinationals.
Instead, for the first time since the question was asked five years ago, the US has overtaken China as CEOs' most important overseas growth market.
With the US economy about 7% larger than before the financial crisis and more jobs having been created than were lost, executives see a strong case for investing in a country that remains a hub of technological innovation.
That echoes a report earlier this week from the International Monetary Fund, which lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2015 but raised it for the US.
