British minister upbeat on slowing China economy

British finance minister George Osborne expressed his confidence in the slowing Chinese economy on Sunday, saying the country was going through a necessary transformation and was still a driver of global growth.

A string of downbeat activity data combined with wild price swings in the stock markets and a surprise currency devaluation in August have fuelled fears that the Chinese economy may be slowing more sharply than was expected earlier, putting Beijing's 2015 growth target of 7 percent at risk.

"China is going through a very necessary and challenging transformation which is essential so that China's economy can go on creating good careers and good jobs and higher living standards for your 1.3 billion people," he said at the start of a five-day trip to China.

"I think the message I would say to China is, carry on with the reform, carry on with the change you're making."

Osborne said he was "very deliberately" visiting the Shanghai stock exchange on Tuesday and would be talking about what had happened on the financial markets over the summer.

"Of course there have been ups and downs. We've seen that through the summer. In our estimation the spillover effects, the impact of that on other financial markets, has been relatively limited," he said, speaking to an audience of Chinese technology executives.