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Zhou said he expected China to be able to reach its economic growth target for the year -- a 6.5% to 7% expansion of gross domestic product for 2016 -- without taking drastic action.

"We can achieve this goal without having to take additional measures," he said.

"We would adjust our monetary policy on a real-time basis. If there are big changes in the domestic and global environment, we will keep the flexibility in monetary policy to counter shocks," Zhou said..

"The current monetary policy is prudent with a slight loosening bias," Zhou told to reporters at a scheduled news conference in Beijing on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual parliament session.

"We also want to stress that monetary policy should be adjusted dynamically depending on the judgment towards the economic situation," he added.

Zhou also said he felt the yuan had stabilized, and expected massive capital outflow to abate in the near term, which has already been reflected in recent data.

Zhou didn't comment specifically on the central bank's plans regarding future interest rate cuts. "Overall, on interest rate policy, we have to look at the whole economic situation, and the next set of related data," he said. "There are many factors to consider."

China’s Industrial Production and Retail sales are continuing declined. Photo : Trading Economics

China’s industrial production over January and February — combined to flatten the effects of the Lunar New Year — rose by 5.4 per cent throughout the year. It is the slowest growth rate in industrial production in seven years, down on the forecast growth of 5.6 per cent and a significant cooling from the 5.9 per cent annualised growth recorded in December.

China’s Retail sales, which had been a beacon of strength in China's economy, were up 10.2 per cent over the year, well below both the forecast 10.8 per cent and the December growth rate of 11.1 per cent.

U.S. crude futures CLc1 were trading at $38.19 per barrel, down 0.81 percent from their last settlement.

Brent futures LCOc1 were down 0.32 percent at $40.26 a barrel.

Data from driller Baker Hughes Friday showed that the tally dropped to a new record this week as the oil rig count fell by 6 to 386. The total count of oil and gas rigs fell 9 to 480. This is the 12th straight week of declines in oil rigs, which are at the lowest level since the week of December 4, 2009.

Iran will join other crude producers in freezing production after its output reaches 4 million barrels per day, the country’s oil minister has said, according to reports.

"They should leave us alone as long as Iran's crude oil has not reached 4 million. We will accompany them afterwards," Zanganeh was quoted as saying, according to Reuters.

The country pumped 2.93 million barrels per day in January.

A week end 8 March, Managed Money increased their net long position in NYMEX’s light sweet crude oil to 174,949 contracts, the highest since 13 October, according to the lastest CFTC’s report.

Reference: Reuters, CNN Money, ABC News, Business Insider, Gulf Business, Bloomberg, CFTC