Predictions of a hard landing for China’s economy are “destined to come to nothing”, according to the country’s top economic planner.

Head of the National Development and Reform Commission Xu Shaoshi said at a Sunday briefing: “China will absolutely not experience a hard landing”.

"China is fully capable of keeping economic growth within a reasonable range," Shaoshi continued. "All predictions of a hard landing will definitely fail".

"As the world's second-largest economy, China's growth will have a spillover effect on the global economic recovery. Still, I disagree with the statement that China is dragging on the global economy”.

Shaoshi pointed to China’s growth rate of 6.9% last year and the rising volumes of commodity imports as evidence that, while the economy is slowing, it is doing so softly. The 6.9% growth was China’s slowest in 25 years, but still ranked among the fastest rates of the world’s major economies. The country has set a growth target of between 6.5% and 7% for 2016.

Shaoshi’s bullish comments arrived as China’s annual national parliament got underway for 12 days in Beijing.

He did, however, temper his sunny forecast with some words of caution:

"First, we estimate the slow recovery and low growth rates in the world's economy will continue for a period of time.

Also we could not overlook the risks from unstable (global) financial markets, falling prices of commodities and risks of geopolitics."