A ZBD-05 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) wades through the mud puddle during a round-the-clock driving skills training exercise at a military training base in southeast China's Fujian Province on February 24, 2017. (81.cn/ He Sheng)

China's 2017 defense spending is budgeted to grow 7 percent, an official with the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

China's military expenditure will be 1.04 trillion yuan (about 152 billion U.S. dollars), including 1.02 trillion yuan from the central budget, the official said.

The figures can be found in a draft national budget for 2017, which has been submitted to the current annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the official said.

China's budget law and the law on national defense require that defense budget every year be included in the draft report of government budget to be reviewed and approved by national lawmakers, the official explained.

The official told Xinhua that the military spending is in line with China's economic development and defense needs.

"The majority of the defense budget will be spent on deepening national defense and military reforms, bolstering military and civilian integration, and improving the living, training and working conditions for service personnel at grassroots levels," the official said.

China's defense budget growth this year is the slowest in at least a decade. The increase last year was 7.6 percent, breaking a multi-year run of double-digit growth.

Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the NPC annual session, said Thursday that China's defense budget would expand by "about 7 percent."

She added that the defense spending accounted for only about 1.3 percent of the country's GDP, in contrast with NATO members' pledge to dedicate at least 2 percent to defense.

Fu also pointed to the recent U.S. proposition to hike defense spending by 10 percent.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump asked for a huge 54-billion-U.S. dollar increase in the country's military spending in his first address to Congress after taking office.