China's economic growth provides lift for world: IMF forum

TIANJIN -- The fast growth of China's economy provides a welcome lift for the whole world at a time when global economic challenges are intensifying, according to experts and scholars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative Office in China and the School of Finance of the Tianjin-based Nankai University.

The forum held in North China's Tianjin municipality on Friday focused on the discussion of the latest World Economic Outlook published by the IMF.

According to the IMF forecast, the world economy will grow 2.8 percent in 2023, 0.1 percentage point lower than its January forecast, while China's economic growth will improve from 3 percent in 2022 to 5.2 percent in 2023.

Amid a rocky recovery of the world economy, China becomes a bright spot.

China's contribution to global economic growth will stand at over one third, said Steven Barnett, IMF senior resident representative in China, at the forum.

"Our research shows that every one percentage point of growth in China boosts 0.3 percentage points of growth in other countries," he said.

Chen Yulu, president of Nankai University, said China is currently promoting the Chinese path to modernization with high-quality economic development, which would strongly support the stable and sustainable growth of the Chinese economy.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday that China's gross domestic product grew 4.5 percent year on year in the first three months. Many key data, including consumption, investment and imports and exports of goods, indicate a promising start for the Chinese economy.

"China's economic data in the first quarter proved even a bit stronger than we had been forecasting. Consumption was the key driver of the growth, as we expected. Meanwhile, export was also stronger than we thought," Barnett said.

Xia Tian, assistant professor of the School of Finance of Nankai University, said maintaining the trend of globalization promotes the positive interaction between Chinese and global economic recovery.