IMF revises upwards China’s growth view for 2017/18

BEIJING - The International Monetary Fund has revised upwards its China growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 to 6.7% and 6.4% respectively, with the better China prospects expected to drive global expansion.

The updated World Economic Outlook report, which comes days after China posted a stronger-than-expected second quarterly performance, was a reflection of a solid first quarter underpinned by previous policy easing and supply-side reforms, including efforts to reduce excess capacity in the industrial sector, the IMF said.

“China is quantitatively a big contributor to the overall world growth picture. More generally, strong Chinese growth drives particularly Asian region but also throughout the world,” said Maurice Obstfeld, Chief Eonomist of the IMF in an interview with State newsagency Xinhua after the release of the updated report.

The IMF also revised upwards China’s economic forecast for 2018 by 0.2% to 6.4%, citing hopes the country may keep high public investment and delay fiscal adjustment to meet its target of doubling the 2010 real GDP by 2020.  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).