China on Friday announced measures aimed at promoting innovation and job creation, state media said, as authorities seek to ensure that slowing economic growth doesn't harm employment.

According to measures released by the State Council, which functions as China's Cabinet, the government should broadly encourage entrepreneurship as well as startup enterprises to serve as a new engine for economic growth, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The announcement comes as China's economic growth in 2014 registered its worst annual performance in nearly a quarter century, expanding 7.4 percent, while gross domestic product (GDP) decelerated further in the first quarter of this year from the previous three months.

Chinese authorities are tolerant of the slowdown, seen as a necessary element of their attempt to oversee a transformation of the economy in which consumer spending drives growth, a change that they and analysts envision as leading to more sustainable long-term expansion.

But they are sensitive to the potential impact on job growth, which is seen as a key element of social stability in the country with the world's largest population.

A total of four measures call for governments at all levels of the country to place priority on creating jobs, increase employment through the encouragement of entrepreneurship and startups, help university graduates to secure employment or establish businesses, and offer improved government and training services, according to Xinhua.

"In order to encourage entrepreneurship and startups, governments at all levels were called on to speed up related reforms and refine policies to ensure fair treatment, favourable financial and tax conditions, and basic social safety benefits for startups," Xinhua said.

The government said in March when releasing the first quarter GDP figure that China's unemployment rate was "stable" at about 5.1 percent and that 3.2 million new urban jobs were created in the period.

Such a pace would put the country on course to best its annual target of more than 10 million new urban jobs.

China new home prices fall in April: survey
Beijing (AFP) May 1, 2015 - The fall in Chinese house prices slowed in April, a survey showed Friday, after authorities loosened mortgage and tax policies in an attempt to boost the country's slumping property market.

The average price of a new home in China's 100 major cities edged down 0.01 percent month on month to 10,522 yuan ($1,695) per square metre, the China Index Academy (CIA) said in a report on its website.

That marked a sharp slowdown in the pace of decline from the 0.15 percent recorded in March, according to the report.

Home prices had declined for eight straight months until a slight increase of 0.21 percent in January, previous CIA figures showed, before dropping again from February.

Property investment is a key driver for China's economy, while land sales are a major source of revenue for cash-strapped local governments, which have been feeling the pinch as the economy slows.

The once red-hot market has cooled to the extent that authorities now feel the need to support it.

The central People's Bank of China (PBoC) in late March lowered minimum downpayment levels on second homes nationwide, rolling back a four-year-old policy first introduced to rein in soaring prices that were making home ownership unaffordable for many and raising worries over social unrest.

It also shortened the ownership period during which sellers are liable to a 20-percent capital gains tax on properties other than their main home.

The policy relaxation in March came after the PBoC eased mortgage policies in September. It has also cut benchmark interest rates twice since November and two times this year has reduced the percentage of funds banks must hold in reserve, in a bid to boost lending.

China's economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent last year, the weakest in nearly a quarter of a century, and authorities have attempted through monetary policy to put a floor on the deceleration.

Analysts broadly expect policymakers will announce further easing this year.

In a year-on year basis house prices fell 4.46 percent in April, accelerating from 4.35 percent in March, according to CIA.

The average price in China's top 10 cities was at 18,961 yuan per square metre, down 3.46 percent from a year ago, it said, accelerating from a decline of 3.19 percent in March.