Li China economy
Li Keqiang, premier of the People's Republic of China and party secretary of the State Council, speaks at a news conference in October 2014. In remarks published Saturday, Li sought to ease fears about China's economic slowdown and stock market volatility. Getty Images

China's economy is growing at a “reasonable” pace, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Friday, adding that there was no basis for a continued depreciation of the Yuan, after the country's central bank allowed the currency to devalue 2.8 percent this month.

China's official news agency Xinhua quoted Li as saying "the Chinese economy is operating within an appropriate range and China continues to lead the world in terms of growth".

Li's remarks, made at a high-level meeting of officials on Friday, but published late Saturday, stressed that measures taken by the country's Communist Party government to stabilize the stock market were proving effective.

China's stock market has endured a period of extreme volatility in recent months, resulting in trillions of dollars being wiped off the value of shares. On Friday, Shanghai's benchmark index was nearly 38 percent below where it was on June 12, Reuters reported.

The yuan can remain “basically” stable on a “reasonable and equilibrium level,” said Li, according to a statement posted on a Chinese government website. He added that China will continue to carry out proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy and will use “more precise” measures to cope with downward pressure on the economy.

After years of double-digit economic growth, China's economy has slowed recently. Chinese government figures said that the country had met its growth target of 7 percent for 2014, but many economists and commentators have expressed skepticism about the veracity of these claims.

Chinese policy makers want to stabilize shares before a Sept. 3 military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the World War II victory over Japan, two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the intervention wasn’t publicly announced, told Bloomberg.

World markets closed Friday having largely recovered from China-induced panic selling, but observers remain concerned the turmoil in the world's number two economy will drag down global growth.