International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde delivers a speech during the plenary session of the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the IMF in Lima, Peru, on Oct. 9, 2015. (Xinhua/Luis Camacho)
LIMA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's economic slowdown is healthy as the world's second-largest economy is shifting to a new growth model, Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said here Friday.
"It is a slowdown, but it is a moderate slowdown, and one that is actually expected and healthy because that country is at a stage of development where it cannot continue to grow at such a high rate as we have seen a few years ago," Lagarde told a press conference as part of the ongoing World Bank Group-IMF annual meetings in Lima.
(L-R) President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim, Peru's President Ollanta Humala, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde and British International Development Secretary Justine Greening attend the seminar "Towards the year 2030" at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the IMF, in Lima, Peru, Oct. 9, 2015. (Xinhua/Luis Camacho)
The IMF chief attributed the downturn to China's current economic shift away from export-led growth to a more consumer-driven model.
Should Beijing's reforms take hold and consumption pick up in China, "it will have been a great transition and I think the world will be better," Lagarde said.
On Tuesday, the IMF expressed confidence in its GDP growth expectations for China in the range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent for 2015 in the latest World Economic Outlook, while predicting growth of 3.1 percent for the world economy this year.
