CRI听力:IMF Chief Lagarde Optimistic of World Growth

"The Sun was warm, but the wind was chilly."

During the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, quoted the American poet Robert Frost to describe the current condition of the global economy.

"Yes, there is some sunshine in the global economy. We have global growth and we are not in crisis. There are some signs that sentiment is improving, and a number of countries are growing at reasonably robust rates. But there are quite a few corners of the world, which are downright chilly, in part because the recovery remains too slow and too fragile."

The IMF estimates global growth will be 3.2 percent this year and 3.5 percent next year, which, it says, will not be enough to raise living standards, reduce debt and create sufficient opportunities for people who are unemployed and looking for a job.

To curb the increasing downside risks, the IMF boss called for a three-pronged approach including continued structural reforms, more growth friendly fiscal policies and monetary policies that support demand.

This, she noted, coincided with China's commitment to structural reform.

"The Chinese authorities, when I was last in China have actually indicated their determination to start, now, the restructuring of some of the State-owned Enterprises in various sectors of activity, whether it is in relation to coal or steel and various others, but predominantly the heavy industry sector, and we hope that is the case. Equally we hope that in order to stimulate the Chinese economy to accompany that process, the Chinese authorities will resort to ways to improve consumption, to move from heavy industry to light industry and services, and to free up certain sectors of the economy rather than to use the stimulus of addition credit, which needs to be reined in adequately."

Lagarde also said she hoped China and other emerging markets would enjoy a higher profile at the IMF.

"In the next five years, I would hope that all currently underrepresented economies whose share in the IMF does not mirror their contribution and their participation in the global economy - as we measure it by IMF criteria - that all these countries will be better represented and that we will be a better mirror of the global economy with their respective contributions."

The annual Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF are open the work of the two bodies to thousands of government officials, journalists, civil society organizations, and participants from academic and the private sector.

For CRI, I'm Luo Laiming in Washington DC.