China needs sustainable growth: IMF Secretary

A woman walks under a decoration made of coloured umbrellas at a shopping centre in downtown Kunming, Yunnan province June 19, 2014.[Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - China should focus on sustainable and healthy economic growth in the medium term, said an official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"I am confident that China can attain steady and sustainable economic growth," Lin Jianhai, Secretary of the IMF, said on Friday.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) will expand by around 7.5 percent in 2014 from the previous year, and the improving global outlook should support exports during the second half of this year, Lin told Xinhua in Beijing.

There is still a long way to go in exploiting the service sector, improving the financial system, inclusive growth, environmental protection, and a balance between growth quality and speed, he said.

The global economy is strengthening, but uneven recoveries, high unemployment and rising public debt in some countries, and low inflation in some advanced economies remain concerns, Lin said.

Lin was confident that introduction of the quota and governance package agreed by IMF governors in 2010 on a bigger role of emerging economies was "only a matter of time".

Most of the IMF's 188 member nations have approved the package, but the United States, which is the largest shareholder in the IMF and the only country with veto power over major IMF decisions, is the major stumbling block.

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