BEIJING -- China's growth continues to moderate, reflecting policy efforts to rebalance the economy as the country works to implement reforms supporting more sustainable growth, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

For 2015-16, China's average economic growth is expected to ease to slightly above 7 percent as policy efforts to place the economy on a more sustainable growth path are likely to intensify, according to the World Bank's China Economic Update released on Wednesday.

"Policy efforts to tighten credit growth, reduce excess capacity, internalize the cost of industrial pollution, and harden budget constraints of local governments intensified in 2014. These policies are welcome and will help put growth on a more sustainable path," said Karlis Smits, Senior Economist and main author of the report.

The World Bank's Chinese economic growth forecast for 2014 has been revised downward to 7.4 percent, largely due to weaker-than-expected domestic economic activity.

China's growth pace dipped to 7.3 percent in the third quarter from 7.5 percent in the April-June period, official data showed.

Slowdown hammers growth at local level	The real importance of service