China's best-known economist is wearing rose-tinted specs

Some real heavyweights have served as chief economist at the World Bank. Over the last couple of decades, holders of the post have included Lawrence Summers, who went on to become treasury secretary of the United States, Joseph Stiglitz, subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for economics, and Nicholas Stern, author of the 2006 Stern Review which finally persuaded many sceptical politicians that climate change was a real threat.

But even among such august company, the current holder of the job, Justin Lin Yifu, manages to stand out.

The first Chinese national to hold such a prominent position at a supra-national institution, Lin is widely regarded as one of the main architects of China's rapid growth.

While he backed opening up the economy to take advantage of China's cheap labour and transfers of foreign know-how, he also advocated protecting favoured state industries to cushion the impact of economic change. It's what he has described as 'a pragmatic, gradual, dual-track approach'.

Certainly it did Lin's reputation no harm, either inside China, where he wields considerable policy influence, or internationally, landing him the World Bank job and the accolade last year of a 6,000-word profile in the New Yorker magazine.

Today, with many economists getting increasingly gloomy about China's growth prospects, Lin remains resolutely bullish, forecasting that output will continue to expand at annual rates of 8 per cent or more for the next 20 years.