The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday upgraded its view of China’s economy, citing a better-than-forecast performance as well as moves to bolster its ailing property market.
The IMF lifted its view on China’s growth for this as well as for next year by 0.4 percentage points, taking its GDP view for 2023 to 5.4% growth and its 2024 GDP view to 4.6% growth.
“The authorities have introduced numerous welcome measures to support the property market, but more is needed to secure a quicker recovery and lower economic costs during the transition. A comprehensive policy package should include measures to accelerate exit of nonviable property developers, remove impediments to housing price adjustment, allocate additional central government funding for housing completion, and assist viable developers to repair balance sheets and adapt to a smaller property market,” said a statement from the IMF’s first managing director, Gita Gopinath.
The Chinese stock market has underperformed rivals this year on concerns about the property sector and the country’s slow rebound from COVID-19. The Shanghai Composite CN:SHCOMP has declined 1% this year, and the Hang Seng HK:HSI has dropped 10%.