Former IMF senior official highlights huge potentials of China's sustained economic growth

DAVOS, Switzerland - Domestic market consumption, manufacturing development, and green transition are poised to become key drivers of China's sustained economic growth in the coming years, said a former senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Chinese economy is undergoing a structural transformation, with its growth sources and patterns shifting, Zhu Min, former deputy managing director of the IMF, told Xinhua during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, which began on Monday.

Amid uncertainties in international trade, Zhu underscored the strategic significance of boosting domestic market consumption to sustain economic growth. While goods consumption already accounts for a substantial share of China's economy, sectors such as healthcare, education, entertainment, tourism, and sports services hold considerable potential for expansion, he added.

China's manufacturing sector remains a cornerstone of its economic competitiveness, Zhu emphasized. "In the first 20 years of the past 40 years, we made manufacturing the cheapest, in the second 20 years we made it both cheap and good, and in the next 20 years we will make manufacturing cheap, good and high-tech, so that we can maintain our core competitiveness."

China has made rapid advancements in sectors such as electric vehicles, demonstrating its commitment to green transition and climate change mitigation. Zhu highlighted the significant potential for further green development, noting that this transition aligns closely with the development of China's manufacturing sector and serves as a critical driver of economic growth.

Talking about the risks and challenges of the global economy, Zhu said that the global economy is in a sustained low growth phase, and the current growth rate is 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points lower than the global average growth rate in the past 20 years.

The fiscal deficits of many economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom are very high and fiscal unsustainable, posing risks to the stability of the global financial system, according to Zhu.

"2025 will be a year of great uncertainty," he said. The impact of the new US government's policies on the global economy remains to be further observed, he said, adding that it is likely to increase the world's uncertainty and economic fragmentation.