Zhu Ning, deputy dean of the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and author of the forthcoming book, China's Guaranteed Bubble, believes the authorities will intervene to prevent this.

"There are certainly such expectations out there in the market but I think the PBOC will be really reluctant to let the market get what it hopes for," he says.

"Even though everyone knows it has to go down a certain amount, the PBOC still has a large amount of reserves on hand to achieve a series of technical depreciations rather than a large one-off devaluation."

The risks in the global landscape are different from what they were 12 months ago.

Then the biggest focus was on Europe and whether Greece might blow the euro apart, whereas this year the biggest concern is likely to be the emerging economies.

Countries such as Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Nigeria have all been hit hard by falling commodity prices and could prove a drag on global growth.

"Last year it was all about Greece but I think now, although the problems in Greece have certainly not got any better, there has been this decoupling in the sense of what happens there might not have wider repercussions. Greece may not be part of the euro forever but there might be less spillover elsewhere if it leaves," says Kuijs.

Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics agrees emerging markets are now the major concern.

"Economies like Brazil and Saudi Arabia have really struggled over the last year because of lower oil prices. Despite all the attention on China and its slowing growth, it benefits from lower commodity prices and is in a good position to weather the storm this year."

Zhu at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, however, believes the impact of falling commodity prices is more nuanced for China.

"China does get some positive feedback effects from commodity prices falling but some of these emerging economies have become important markets for China and this could be bad news for the country's exports," he says.

Economics commentator Mason expects growth in China to fall in 2016 but does not expect any hard landing.

"For me, the outlook for China is long-term positive. I do not see any doom-laden scenario."

He believes even if China does experience investment bubbles such as with the stock market crash in 2015, it is still left with tangible assets that will continue to drive growth.

"Underlying everything you have real things. There are real high-speed trains, there are new bridges, there is new housing on a vast scale. Whatever happens this physical stock of infrastructure will remain."

andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn