Source of strength for recovery of global economy

Editor's Note: The following are excerpts of Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin's response to a question at a regular news conference in Beijing on Wednesday about some Western politicians and media claiming that China's economic slowdown may pose risks to global economic growth:

The fact is that China's economy continues to recover. Its rebound is generally on a sound track. China remains an important engine for world economic growth.

In the first half of this year, China's GDP grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year, faster than the 3-percent growth rate last year, higher than the average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent over the three years under COVID-19 and three percentage points higher than the growth rate of the US economy. According to the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook updated last month, China's economy is expected to grow by 5.2 percent and account for one-third of global growth this year.

China's high-quality economic development has made solid progress with bright spots both in the quality and quantity of growth. Consumption is playing a significantly stronger role in driving the country's economic growth, and China's exports have maintained a generally stable global market share in the first seven months of this year.

The sluggish world economic recovery, combined with unabated inflation, financial turbulence and rising debt pressure, poses significant economic challenges for all countries. China's post-COVID-19 economic recovery is characterized by undulating progress. Challenges are to be expected. We never shy away from them. Instead we respond to them head-on. The results of our response are already showing or beginning to show. Lately, China has rolled out a host of targeted and substantive measures aimed at promoting consumption, boosting the private sector, and attracting foreign investment, which have been applauded by domestic and foreign investors. Certain Western politicians and media have exaggerated and hyped up the current difficulties in China's post-COVID economic recovery.

The Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, ample potential and robust dynamism and the fundamentals sustaining China's economic growth are sound. We have the confidence, the conditions and the ability to meet the economic and social development targets set for 2023 with high quality, opening up broader prospects for China's economy, and remaining a source of strength for world economic recovery and growth.