IMF managing director to meet leaders in China, go to Indonesia, India

BEIJING – International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will visit China from Wednesday to meet with top leaders, before travelling to Indonesia and India for ASEAN and Group of 20 summits, an IMF spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“During Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 the Managing Director will be visiting China to engage in bilateral discussions with China‘s senior leadership team,” they said.

Ms. Georgieva will then travel to Jakarta to participate in a summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before attending the G20 meeting for heads of state and government in New Delhi.

Last month, the IMF raised its 2023 global growth estimates slightly given resilient economic activity in the first quarter, but warned that persistent challenges were curtailing the medium-term outlook.

The lender projects global real gross domestic product growth of 3% in 2023, up 0.2 percentage point from its April forecast, but left its outlook for 2024 unchanged, also at 3%.

The Fund left its forecast for China unchanged, predicting the world’s second-largest economy will grow by 5.2% this year, up from a COVID-subdued 3% in 2022, before falling to 4.5% in 2024, warning that China‘s recovery was underperforming and that a deeper contraction in the real estate sector remained a risk.

Ms. Georgieva will be in Jakarta from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7 and New Delhi from Sept. 8 to Sept. 10, the spokesperson added. – Reuters