Slashing the number of inefficient and unprofitable "zombie enterprises" is the priority for China's "must-do" list next year, a senior central government official said on Sunday.

Yang Weimin, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, was speaking in Beijing at a forum held by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a government think tank.

"The pain is inevitable, but it is a necessary part of the leadership's shift to supply-side reform next year," he said.