China can weather financial storm: WB economist

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-13 08:00

WASHINGTON: World Bank Chief Economist Justin Lin said on Saturday that China could remain buoyant through the current financial crisis, the most serious since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

"My overall position is that certainly China will be affected, because exports are a very important part of China's economic growth," Lin told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

"However, China may be able to weather this crisis in a much better shape than many other developing countries," Lin, a leading Chinese economist who was named as the chief economist and senior vice-president for Development Economics at the World Bank in February, said.

Justin Lin

Lin cited three reasons for his confidence.

"First, China has such large foreign reserves. And second, China has capital controls, so China, in a way, can insulate itself by building a firewall against the contagion," he said.

"And third, China has a very strong fiscal position, because in the past four years, the (Chinese) government has run quite a substantial fiscal surplus."

Lin, 56, said China could stimulate the domestic economy through investment because of its strong position.

Lin also told Xinhua earlier this week that China should stimulate domestic demand even without any external pressure, "because these are the debts that China has accumulated during the years that followed the reform and opening-up policy".

Lin pointed out that China's stable and rapid economic development is a major contributor to the world economy.

"It not only elevates China's exports, but also provides a bigger market for the rest of the world," he said.

Xinhua