Interview: China leading world economic growth, says Croatian economist

ZAGREB, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- As the second largest economy in the world and due to its contribution to the world economic growth, China is leading the growth of the world economy, Ljubo Jurcic, former Croatian minister of economy and now professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Zagreb, said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

"The share of the Chinese economy in the world in the future will grow," he said, noting that China's economy is expected to contribute more than 30 percent to world economic growth in 2023, making it the main engine for world economic growth.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.2 percent year on year to a new high of 126.06 trillion yuan (about 17.7 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The growth rate is higher than the government's annual target of around 5 percent and exceeds the 3 percent increase in 2022.

In the eyes of the Croatian economist, this shows that the Chinese economy is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and China has now entered a period of stable economic growth.

"China has entered the period of stable growth of 5 to 6 percent," which is much higher than major developed Western economies, he said.

Jurcic hailed China's economic growth as in 2000 China's GDP per capita was no more than 1,000 U.S. dollars and now it is nearly 13,000 U.S. dollars. "No country has experienced such rapid growth in human history, and there is even more space for growth in the future," he added.