As she concluded a visit to China, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hailed the “productive and substantive” discussions she had with senior government figures.
Despite modestly improving its projection for global GDP this year, the IMF issued a warning in July that the pandemic-related global economic recovery was faltering.
The IMF expects China, the second-largest economy in the world, to grow by 5.2 percent in 2023, which is slightly more than Beijing’s aim of about five percent.
Although the post-Covid bounce was already modest, growth in the Asian country has stalled in recent months due to sluggish consumer demand, significant youth unemployment, and a crisis in the vital property industry.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said she had “very productive and substantive discussions with the Chinese leadership”, including Premier Li Qiang, Vice Premier He Lifeng, central bank governor Pan Gongsheng and Finance Minister Liu Kun.
The group spoke about the “status of the world economy and on the developments here in China”, Georgieva said in a video posted on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.
“We talked about measures the Chinese government is taking to bring forward the (growth) goal,” the Bulgarian economist said, adding that the target was “important for China (and) important for the world”.
“In a world where so many countries are vulnerable to the impact of the Covid and war shocks, it is critical that the IMF has the financial strength to help them,” she said.
“I am grateful to China for recognising the role of the IMF at the centre of the global financial safety net,” she said.
Georgieva claimed she also had encounters with the mayor of Shanghai and Dilma Rousseff, the current head of the BRICS-founded New Development Bank and a former president of Brazil.
In March, the head of the IMF encouraged China’s officials to increase productivity and rebalance the country’s economy away from investment and toward more resilient consumption-driven growth.
