Foreign businesses have been enthusiastic in taking part in CIIE: Chinese FM

Foreign businesses have been enthusiastic in taking part in the China International Import Expo, China International Fair for Trade in Services, the Canton Fair and the China International Consumer Products Expo, which speaks to their readiness to keep exploring the Chinese market, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing on Wednesday.

According to media reports, the IMF in its latest report scaled up projected growth rate of the Chinese economy to 5.4 percent and 4.6 percent for 2023 and 2024 respectively, up by 0.4 percentage point compared with October projections.

"The Chinese economy is on track to meet the government’s 2023 growth target, reflecting a strong post-COVID recovery," said Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director.

Recently, financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan, UBS, and Deutsche Bank, scaled up their projections of this year’s Chinese economic growth and believed that Chinese macroeconomic policies are delivering results, Wang said.

"The third quarter has seen a sustained economic rebound with increasing internal driving forces, higher quality of development and accumulating factors conducive to economic development," he added.

Wang noted that since the year began, despite the complex and severe external environment, such as the sluggish global economic recovery and high global inflation rate, the Chinese economy has shown strong resilience, potential and dynamism.

"We have been upgrading the industrial structure, shifting from old drivers of growth to new ones, and opening up new areas and new arenas in development," he said.

According to IMF Senior Resident Representative in China, China remains the single largest contributor to global growth and accounts for one-third of it.

In addition, the latest survey by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade shows that nearly 70 percent of the surveyed foreign-funded enterprises expressed their confidence in the prospect of the Chinese market for the next five years.

“It is promised that China will remain an anchor and source of strength for world economic growth,” Wang said.

"We will continue to advance high-level opening up, promote high-quality development, share new opportunities with the world brought by Chinese modernization and make even greater contribution to global economic recovery, development and prosperity," he added.