‘China keeps up economic growth momentum’

BEIJING: China will keep up momentum of its economic growth, while giving full support to international community for overall stability and progress.

This was stated here on Thursday by a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Lu Kang at a weekly news briefing, while commenting on a report released by International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He noted that this is the second time the International Monetary Fund has lowered its global economic growth forecast this year, reflecting that the downward pressure on the global economy is still rising.

In this context, he added, “ China's economic operation has maintained a good momentum of overall stability, stability, and progress. This is obvious to the international community.

Although the current external environment is still facing some uncertainties and unstable factors, the long-term fundamentals of China's economic development have not changed. The basic characteristics of China's economic resilience, potential, and room for manoeuvre have not changed.

The International Monetary Fund raised China's economic growth forecast, indicating that the international community has full confidence in the Chinese economy's sustained high-speed growth and its mid- to high-end level.”

Meanwhile, Li Chengwen, ambassador for China-Arab States Cooperation Forum Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry has refuted the criticism that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will create so-called "debt trap" for some participating countries.

"China is trying to find mechanisms to avoid the 'debt trap,'" Li said during a session on the second day of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa 2019 held in the Dead Sea area of Jordan, reports Chinese media.

The Chinese envoy was responding to the criticism directed at the BRI by some people in the United States and Europe ahead of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, due to be hosted by China later this month in Beijing.

The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road to seek common development and prosperity.

As of July 2018, more than 100 countries and international organizations had signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China, extending the initiative's scope from the Eurasian continent to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the South Pacific region.

Li pointed out that no participating country has complained of falling into the so-called "trap" of Chinese loans.

"The Belt and Road Initiative aims to increase the economic prosperity of a country. It does not aim at expanding the political and geographical authority of China in the world," he said. — INP