China Straying From Traditional Growth Engine - IMF

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) U.S., WASHINGTON, April 16. China is strayingfrom traditional growth engine, said Tobias Adrian, FinancialCounselor and Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department,IMF during a briefing on the Global financial Stability Report heldas part of the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Trendreports.

"The most recent GDP figure in China was above expectation lastyear. For the whole year the GDP growth was also above 5%. So, theoverall growth rate remains very strong. investment in the propertysector has been an engine of growth for China for many years. Andthere is a marked slowdown in property investment, in particular,when you look at new construction in housing that has dropped verysharply. And that is certainly a transition in terms of the growthmodel that authorities are very focused on," he said.

The second aspect, as Adrian said, is about the valuation ofhousing prices.

"We have seen a decline in housing prices, they fairly moderateto date. And that is certainly a strength from a financialstability perspective. Housing investment is the biggest asset formost households. And of course, banks have exposure to the housingmarket as well. So, while there has been a decline in housingprices, it has not been extremely sharp. In terms of assessingfinancial sector stability, it's very important to consider theregional heterogeneity of housing markets. There are some majorcities that continue to perform very strongly from a housingperspective, while other provinces are somewhat weaker. Wecertainly see also this regional disparity in terms of the bankingsector, so some of the smaller banks and some of the weakerprovinces are more impacted, than, say, banks in the strongerprovinces," he added.

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and theWorld Bank Group kicked off on April 15.

The main ministerial meetings and events will take place April17-19 with other events and activities taking place during theweek, April 15-20.

At the heart of the gathering are meetings of the jointDevelopment Committee and the IMF's International Monetary andFinancial Committee, which discuss progress on the work of theWorld Bank Group and the IMF.

The Spring Meetings bring together central bankers, ministers offinance and development, parliamentarians, private sectorexecutives, representatives from civil society organizations andacademics to discuss issues of global concern, including the worldeconomic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, andaid effectiveness.

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