Chinese economy performs well, with reforms progressing in key sectors: IMF

BEIJING - The Chinese economy is performing well and reforms in several key sectors are making good progress, a senior IMF official said here Wednesday.

"China's financial sector de-risking accelerated with a wide range of decisive measures adopted; credit growth slowed; overcapacity reduction progressed; anti-pollution efforts intensified; and opening up continued," according to a statement issued by James Daniel, assistant director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after the IMF annual Article IV review of the Chinese economy.

An IMF team, led by James Daniel, visited Beijing and Shenzhen from May 17 to 30, to hold discussions on the annual review, and projected China's economic growth of 6.6 percent for 2018, which will moderate gradually to 5.5 percent by 2023.

According to Daniel, the IMF welcomed China's strategy of decisively shifting from high-speed to high-quality growth.

"Given China's record of successful reforms in the past decades, and the authorities' strong commitment and determination, we are confident that China will rebalance to a sustainable growth model," he said.

The IMF team also provided policy recommendations to China, including de-emphasizing growth targets, continuing to rein in credit growth and further boosting consumption.