The IMF increased its 2024 growth forecast for China to 5% based on recent economic expansion and government support, reports Bloomberg. The IMF’s previous growth forecast for China was 4.6%. The Fund expects the momentum to continue, raising its GDP forecast for 2025 to 4.5% from 4.1%, according to a press release published Wednesday. China is targeting growth of around 5% this year.
In the first quarter it reported a better-than-expected expansion of 5.3%, although a drawn-out slump in housing continues to weigh on domestic demand.
“We certainly are seeing that consumption is recovering but it has some ways to go,” the Fund’s First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said in an interview with Bloomberg News earlier this week. “The strength we’re seeing in public investment remains. Private investment is still weak, mainly because of the weakness in the property sector.”