China’s top decision-making body pledged on Thursday to carry out further policies designed to maintain stable economic growth, despite factors dragging such expansion, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

China’s Politburo said in a statement – after a meeting chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping – that “the downside pressure in the economy is relatively large, some enterprises face difficulties in running operations [while] the momentum of new economic growth areas is insufficient”.

In tackling such downward pressure, China would “maintain its proactive fiscal policy by continuing to expand public spending, reduce companies’ financial burdens and encourage private investment, while keeping its prudent monetary policy flexible,” said the Politburo.

The Central Government would take “effective measures” to nurture the steady growth of consumption, investment and exports, which were the key engines of growth, it said. Beijing would also “step up targeted policies” to counter downside effects, it added.

China’s gross domestic product expanded at a rate of 7 percent in the second quarter, beating some analysts’ projections. But China’s economy is still heading in 2015 towards its slowest annual growth since 1990.