China remains an important engine driving world economic growth: spokesperson

(ECNS) -- “China will remain an important engine driving world economic growth in 2024. In a world battling economic uncertainties, China is a source of certainty and positive energy,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Thursday.

IMF Senior Resident Representative in China predicted that the Chinese economy will maintain sound growth in 2024 and continue to account for one-third of global economic growth.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the fundamentals of China’s economy in 2024 will be further cemented. Institutions such as the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies believe that China’s exports remain strong in electric vehicle batteries, electronic products and minerals and quite a few Chinese industries have become globally competitive.

Wang reaffirmed that in 2024, China will apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, speed up building the new development paradigm, promote high-quality development and continue to harness its strong innovation capacity, huge market, sound infrastructure, complete industrial chain and rich and high-quality human resources.

“China will expand high-level opening up, further ease market access, foster a world-class, market-oriented business environment governed by a sound legal framework, and share with the rest of the world new opportunities created by Chinese modernization,” he added.

Wang noted that in 2023, China’s economy sustained the momentum of recovery despite external pressure and achieved solid progress in high-quality development.

According to international institutions, China’s economic growth rate in 2023 to be around 5.2 percent, holding the lead among major economies and continuing to be the largest engine for global growth.

Besides, China secured a bumper harvest for the 20th year in a row with the total grain output exceeding 0.65 trillion kilos for nine consecutive years, hitting another record high. During the recent New Year holiday, 135 million domestic trips were made, up by 9.4 percent on a comparable basis from the same period in 2019; and domestic tourism generated RMB 79.73 billion in revenue, up by 5.6 percent compared with the same period in 2019. As a mega market, China continues to unleash its vast potential of domestic demand.

He pointed out that the fundamentals sustaining China’s steady growth in the long run have not changed and the world has shown confidence in China’s economy this year. 

China’s large economic size, mature industrial ecosystem and rising middle class mean it is a market hard to give up, commented several international media outlets.