BEIJING: China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter this year is forecast to accelerate close to 7.8 percent, Goldman Sachs Asia and the Beijing-based Gaohua Securities Company said in a report Wednesday.

"The figure is above our previous forecast of 7.0 percent year on year," said Song Yu, one author of the report and Goldman Sachs Asia's economist on China's macro-economy.

Fixed asset investment in June is forecast to grow 42 percent year on year, up from 38.7 percent in May.

Exports is expected to decline 22 percent in June from a year earlier, smaller from a 26.4 percent dip in May, while imports may post a eased drop at 18.0 percent from a 25.2 percent fall in May.

The consumer price index is expected to fall 1.5 percent in June from a year ago, compared with a 1.4 percent drop in May. Producer price index would decline 7.6 percent year on year, compared with a slide of 7.2 percent in May.

Zhou Xiaochun, governor of the country's central bank, said in late June that the second quarter is expected to be better than the first, when the gross domestic product grew 6.1 percent. The National Bureau of Statistics said in June that China's GDP will grow close to eight percent in the second quarter.

China is due to release its second-quarter GDP data in mid-July.