IMF: progress in external rebalancing away from export-led gr

　　China's external positions in 2018 are basically in line with medium-term economic fundamentals, and the external rebalancing of the Chinese economy continues to make progress, the international monetary fund (IMF) said Sunday.

　　

　　The IMF released its 2019 external risk report on the same day, saying that the ratio of China's current account surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen sharply from about 10% in 2007 to 0.4% in 2018. China's external position has basically been in line with the medium-term economic fundamentals, indicating that China's economic growth is no longer dependent on exports, but is driven by domestic demand.

　　

　　The report said that since 2007, China's current account surplus has continued to decline significantly, which is the result of many factors, including weak demand in major developed economies, upgrading of China's manufacturing technology, appreciation of the real effective exchange rate of the RMB, and widening trade deficit in services.

　　

　　The IMF expects China's current account surplus to fall further in the coming years as China's rebalancing continues. The IMF said that the real effective exchange rate of the RMB remained in line with economic fundamentals in 2018, and cross-border capital flows were a small net inflow in the whole year.

　　

　　The IMF expects China to continue to rely on domestic consumption to drive growth, reduce its reliance on credit and encourage more private sector participation in the economy, IMF chief economist geeta gopinath said at a press conference. She called on economies with current account surpluses and deficits to work together to address global imbalances, reinvigorate international trade and avoid distorting trade policy measures.

　　

　　On the day of the IMF report also showed that global current-account balance accounts for the proportion of global GDP has to fall from about 6% in 2007 to about 3% in 2018, one of the huge current account surplus is mainly the eurozone economies and South Korea, Singapore and other Asian economies, large current account deficit of basically has the United States, Britain, Argentina and Indonesia etc.

　　

　　Since 2012, IMF has released the external risk report every year, which analyzes and evaluates the external imbalances and exchange rates of 29 major economies in the world, including the United States, China, Germany, Japan and the euro zone as a whole.