IMF chief to visit China on Wednesday

BEIJING: International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva will visit China Wednesday ahead of scheduled stops in two other Asian countries, a spokesperson said.

“During August 30 to September 3, the Managing Director will be visiting China to engage in bilateral discussions with China’s senior leadership team,” the IMF spokesperson said on Tuesday.

During a visit to Beijing earlier this year, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said that she expected 2023 to be “another challenging year”, and that uncertainty was “exceptionally high”.

The IMF chief urged China’s policymakers in March to seek to raise productivity and rebalance the economy away from investment and towards more durable consumption-driven growth.

The IMF forecasts 5.2-percent growth in China’s GDP this year.

Last month, the IMF slightly upgraded its outlook for world growth this year on the back of resilient service sector activity in the first quarter and a strong labour market.

“The global economy continues to gradually recover from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it is not yet out of the woods,” IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said at the time.

After visiting China, Georgieva will proceed to the Indonesian capital Jakarta from September 4 to 7 for a gathering of leaders of regional bloc ASEAN.

She will then head to New Delhi, India, from September 8 to 10 to attend a G20 summit.