Former World Bank Economist Talks Up Chinese Economy

Justin Lin, the World Bank’s chief economist between 2008 and 2012, thinks the growing gloom about China’s economy is misplaced. And the Chinese government is making sure that everyone knows that he feels that way. The FT has an account here of the press conference the government arranged to feature Lin’s sunny view: Former World ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Justin Lin, the World Bank's chief economist between 2008 and 2012, thinks the growing gloom about China's economy is misplaced. And the Chinese government is making sure that everyone knows that he feels that way. The FT has an account here of the press conference the government arranged to feature Lin's sunny view:

Justin Lin, the World Bank’s chief economist between 2008 and 2012, thinks the growing gloom about China’s economy is misplaced. And the Chinese government is making sure that everyone knows that he feels that way. The FT has an account here of the press conference the government arranged to feature Lin’s sunny view:

Former World Bank chief economist and senior adviser to the Chinese government Justin Lin has criticised widespread pessimism among economists and investors about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy and predicted it would grow between 7.5 per cent and 8 per cent for the next 20 years.

Mr Lin’s comments come amid rising alarm at China’s slowing growth, which appears to be on track for its poorest performance since 1990. That year the country was facing international sanctions in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The lowest rate of growth since then was 7.6 per cent in 1999…

Mr Lin was speaking to journalists at a briefing arranged by China’s foreign ministry. The setting for his comments suggested that Beijing is hoping to balance a flood of pessimism in the market over the state of the economy.

Lin’s former employer is significantly more concerned about China’s economic trajectory.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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