Lagarde expects China to astound world

Tokyo

CHINA "has amazed the world through its economic transformations" over the past three decades, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said in Shanghai on Friday. "Over the next few decades, China will astound the world through its global economic leadership."

Addressing students of the city's Fudan University, Ms Lagarde noted that "China provides much-needed support to the global economy". It has accounted for more than a third of global growth over the past seven years, she said.

But to "retain its leading position, China needs to keep reinventing its economic ingredients", she said. "This is how China transformed itself in a remarkably short period from an inward-looking, less-developed economy into the world's biggest manufacturer and trading…