Beijing (People's Daily) - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said Friday that the opening of the Chinese economy is helping boost growth in the Asia-Pacific region in the near term.

Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF Asia and Pacific Department, made the remarks at the International Finance Forum (IFF) via video link in Beijing on Friday.



(Photo provided by the IFF)

“The Chinese economy was opened up quite fast,” Srinivasan said during the One-on-One Global Dialogue hosted by IFF Vice President and former Secretary of the IMF Lin Jianhai. “Now this can have a significant impact on the Asian economy.”

Tightening global monetary policies, global inflation, the Ukraine crisis and China’s reopening economy all had an effect on the Asian economy in 2023, Srinivasan said.

“China's reopening has brought a good impact,” he said. Asian services, demand and exports will rise as tourism picks up in Thailand, the Maldives, Vietnam and Japan, for example.

One percentage point of Chinese GDP growth raised outputs by 0.3 percent across Asia on average, he said.

China had the lion’s share of regional trade, he noted.

“Countries who trade very closely with China will benefit a lot and countries which depend on tourism will also benefit from China,” Srinivasan said. "In China, we expect the sooner-than-anticipated economic reopening, which means normalizing mobility, to boost activity, in particular private consumption."

A rebound in Chinese economic activity already appeared underway, he said.

"We had earlier projected mobility and consumption to pick up in the second half of 2023, but given the economy was opened very fast, we brought forward the pickup in mobility and consumption in the first half of 2023.”

For this reason the IMF has upped its GDP growth forecast for China from 4.4 to 5.2 percent in 2023.

External demand from the US and Europe was weaker and predicted to slow this year, Srinivasan said.

The weaker demand for technology imports was affecting exports for advanced Asian economies such as South Korea.

The International Finance Forum (IFF) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental international organization founded in October 2003, established by financial leaders from more than 20 countries and regions, including China, the United States, the European Union, emerging countries and leaders of international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IFF is a long-standing, high-level platform for dialogue, communication and multilateral cooperation.