Robots conduct welding work at the workshop of an automobile manufacturing factory in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 14, 2023. (Photo by Zhang Jingang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Economic experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are optimistic about China's economic growth outlook in 2023, saying that China will continue to be one of the major countries to see the strongest growth this year.

The IMF updated its World Economic Outlook and projected that China's economy will grow by 5.2 percent in 2023, 0.8 percentage points higher than the forecast in October last year. It forecast that China's economic growth will hit 4.5 percent next year.

China will continue to be one of the major countries to see the strongest growth this year, and its contribution to global economic growth will stand at 30 percent, Steven Barnett, IMF Senior Resident Representative in China, said in a keynote speech at a seminar on world economic situation.

The seminar was cohosted by the IMF Office in China and Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

In contrast, the IMF updated its 2023 global growth outlook to expand by 2.9 percent, lower than the 3.4 percent growth rate registered in 2022.

Against this background, the outstanding performance of China's economy will help improve the global economic growth prospects, according to the IMF official.

With the optimization and adjustment of China's epidemic prevention policies, indicators such as transportation, total retail sales of consumer goods, and manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) are improving, indicating that market optimism is increasing, said Li Xin, IMF Deputy Resident Representative in China. These factors have pushed the IMF to raise its forecast for China's economic growth in 2023.

The PMI for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.1 in January, up from 47 last December, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Huang Yiping, deputy dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, said that China's future development will rely more on an innovation-driven growth model.

It is crucial for China's economic development to encourage and guide private enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and other market players to actively participate in innovation, Huang said at the seminar.

Data showed that from 2020 to 2022, the Chinese economy posted an annual average growth of 4.5 percent, outpacing the world average of 1.8 percent and higher than those of other major economies.