BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economy is expected to grow around 5.3% in 2022, bringing the average annual growth rate forecast for 2020-2022 to 5.2%, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a top government think tank, said on Monday.

       Advisers to the government will recommend that authorities set a 2022 economic growth target lower than the target set for 2021 of "above 6%", Reuters reported, amid growing headwinds from a property downturn, weakening exports and strict COVID-19 curbs that have impeded consumption.

       The world's second-largest economy is expected to have expanded by about 8% this year, according to the annual blue book on the economy from CASS. The think tank warned that the property downturn was likely to persist and weigh on the expenditures of local governments next year.

       It urged the central government to proactively engineer a soft landing for the property sector, to avoid failed land auctions in big cities and to fend off risks of quickly falling property prices in smaller cities, the report said.

       (Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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