The World Bank on March 18 lowered its forecast for China’s economic growth this year to 6.5 percent from the November estimate of 7.5 percent, warning Beijing it would actually be thwarting its own medium-term goals if it tried to offset the slowdown by further boosting investment.
Meanwhile, Europe is comfortable with China’s growing world role but believes the G20 summit will be too early to decide on Beijing’s calls for more say in global financial bodies, the EU Commissioner for External Relations said yesterday.
EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Beijing that the London gathering of 20 major wealthy and developing powers this week would focus on “concrete results” to revive the global economy, not more distant issues.
China caused a stir ahead of the Thursday summit when it suggested the world move to greater use of the IMF SDF as an international reserve currency.
“I don’t think that this will be the question that really will be discussed thoroughly in London,” Ferrero-Waldner said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) and Vice Premier Li Keqiang (李克強).
Likewise, she said, China’s call for a bigger role in the IMF and other international financial bodies would not be a focus of the summit.
“I think it’s too early for us to give a really concrete answer,” she said of these calls. “I think it is within the IMF, it is within the international financial institutions, that these questions have to be discussed.”
The idea of a new reserve currency system based on the SDF has not been entirely knocked down, but many G20 leaders have made clear that for now the US dollar’s status as the dominant reserve unit remains.
Ferrero-Waldner is seeking to smooth differences between Brussels and Beijing before the G20 meeting and a planned summit between China and the EU in May.
She said China’s growing economic clout naturally meant more of an international role for Beijing.
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