The world should not pin its hopes on China being the sole engine of growth to bolster the global economy, Premier Li Keqiang told heads of major international finance and trade organisations in Beijing on Friday. China is still a developing country. We cannot shoulder the major responsibilities of the world economy Li Keqiang, Premier At an unprecedented round table talk with six global trade and finance leaders, Li said world economic recovery should not be driven by mainly China, but in concert with many countries. “China is still a developing country. We cannot shoulder the major responsibilities of the world economy,” Li said. The IMF’s upward revision of China’s gross domestic product growth had put “pressure” Beijing’s efforts to stabilise the economy, he said. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund revised up its forecast of China’s 2016 GDP growth by 0.1 per cent to 6.6 per cent on Tuesday, citing the country’s “recent policy support”, including interest rate cuts, fiscal expansion and rising investment. At the same, the fund trimmed its global growth forecasts again due to uncertainty following Britain’s decision on June 23 to leave the European Union, to 3.1 per cent for 2016 and 3.4 per cent for 2017 – a 0.1 percentage-point reduction for each year. IMF scraps forecast for global growth due to Brexit fallout The “1+6” round-table meeting was held ahead of the G20 central bank governors’ meeting in Chengdu tomorrow. The meeting was the first of its kind and underline Beijing’s ambitions to expand its influence in multilateral institutions. Those attending the event were World Bank president Jim Yong-kim, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, World Trade Organisation director-general Roberto Azevedo, International Labour Organisation director-general Guy Ryder, Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Financial Stability Board chairman Mark Carney. The leaders agreed that it would take time for the world economy to recover amid increasing uncertainty, Xinhua reported. To cope with the various risks, they would mobilise “forceful, comprehensive and coordinated” currency and fiscal policies and structural reforms, and foster new economic engines including innovation, a new industrial revolution and the digital economy. On Thursday, the IMF issued an “urgent” call for the world’s largest economies to roll out more growth-boosting policies. Central banks should maintain monetary easing while the Group of 20 largest economies should prepare contingency plans should the stagnating outlook become a downturn, the IMF said in a briefing for the G20 finance officials meeting in Chengdu. IMF raises China outlook, but warns shift in growth model is having ‘chilling effect’ on global trade “China’s transition could further raise volatility around the baseline path of the global economy,” the IMF noted in the report. “Against this background, insufficient rebuilding of policy buffers and tackling of corporate and financial weaknesses in emerging economies would leave them highly vulnerable to shocks.” China had cut steel capacity by nearly 5 million tonnes, and coal capacity by 100 million tonnes this year amid domestic economic restructuring, Li said. However, the capacity reduction was a based on slowing domestic demand, and not because of international pressure, Li said. Ninety per cent of China’s steel and iron output was used in domestic industrialisation and urbanisation, he said. Li said China was willing to tackle trade frictions over steel and coal through bilateral negotiations and vowed to push ahead with marketisation.