Zhu Guangyao, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Finance, recently said that China and the US have a key role to play in the global economic recovery in the current fragile economic situation. This year, China is the biggest contributor to global economic growth.

According to Lin Jianhai, Secretary-General of the IMF, in the 1990s the emerging economies contributed about 25 percent of the global growth; from 2000 to 2007 their contribution continued to rise; after the financial crisis, their contribution accounted for three quarters of global growth, while fully one third of this global growth came from China.

Mei Yuxin, researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, explains China's contribution to the global economy as follows: Firstly, China provides a large quantity of cheap products to the world, especially for low-income countries and the poor. At the same time, Chinese-made products, with their high efficiency and cost advantages, have effectively suppressed inflationary pressure in the US and other importing countries. Secondly, China, as the second biggest import market, and one that has maintained the fastest growth rate for over a decade, provides many export opportunities to its trade partners. And thirdly, China's ever-increasing overseas investment has filled the funding gap of many countries. In the past decade, the economic growth of some developing countries has been almost entirely dependent on trade with China and direct Chinese investment.

Facing downward pressure, China did not adopt large-scale stimulus policies, ease monetary policy, or run a larger deficit. After a strong push for economic reform, China has realized a sound and steady economic development. Kaushlk Basu, Chief Economist of the World Bank, thinks that China's reform of its economic structure has begun to take effect. Along with the rise of labor costs in China, the proportion of manufacturing industry in the economy is dropping gradually and the service industry is taking a larger share, which suggests that the Chinese economy is heading towards a consumer-driven structure.

According to Zhu Guangyao: "Along with economic structural adjustment, the tertiary industry contributed over 40 percent of the economic growth in the first half of this year and played a key role in creating jobs." As of now, China has basically realized its job-creating target for the full year. Economic growth of 7.5% is in line with healthy and sustainable economic development, and to achieve the goal, we have to firmly press forward with overall reform.

In the World Economic Outlook newly issued by IMF, the economic growth forecasts of most developed economies have been scaled down, but it maintains the forecasts of Chinese economic growth for 2014 and 2015 at 7.4 percent and 7.1 percent.

The article is edited and translated from《中国对世界增长贡献率超过美国》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Zhao Tengfei.