GDP growth of slightly lower than 7.5 percent acceptable: China premier

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said economic growth of slightly higher or lower than 7.5 percent this year would be acceptable as long as there was higher employment and wages, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday.

Li's latest remarks signaled some flexibility in hitting the annual growth target and put more emphasis on reforms.

Economic growth should create jobs, raise people's incomes, save energy and be good for the environment, Xinhua quoted Li as saying at an economic symposium on Tuesday.

"Growth rate slightly higher or lower than 7.5 percent is acceptable, as long as our development creates jobs, boosts incomes, have quality and efficiency, favors energy savings and environmental protection, and is not an exaggeration and real," Li told a group of economists and scholars during discussions.

In March, the government set an economic growth target of around 7.5 percent for 2014, along with an inflation target of around 3.5 percent.

The government will stick with its "targeted" approach in macro-economic policies, and will rely more on reforms and market forces to unleash growth drivers, Li said.

As a developing country, China must keep economic growth within a "reasonable range" over the long term, he said.

Li said Beijing would keep its targeted macro-control policies and allow the market to play a bigger role, the report said.

The premier has recently vowed that the economy would grow by at least 7.5 percent in 2014, surprising many market watchers after a weak start to the year and reinforcing expectations of more government assistance to come.

The cabinet emphasized at a regular meeting on Wednesday that this year's key economic targets must be accomplished and urged local government officials to seriously implement reforms and policy measures.

China's economy grew 7.5 percent in April-June from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Wednesday, just ahead of a median forecast of 7.4 percent in a Reuters poll.

(Reporting by Kazunori Takada and Kevin Yao; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)