Asia remains powerhouse of global growth: IMF

Asia, which is contributing 60 percent to global growth, remains the world's engine of growth, said Krishna Srinivasan, director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Asia and Pacific Department at a Thursday press briefing on IMF's latest economic projections for Asia and Pacific.

Noting that in the first half of this year, Asia's economies grew stronger than expected, Srinivasan said at the briefing that the IMF has upgraded its regional forecast to 4.6 percent in 2024 and to 4.4 percent in 2025.

Asia generates 60 percent of global growth, far more than its share in global GDP of about 40 percent, he added.

Regarding inflation, Srinivasan said that Asia has managed to bring inflation down to low and stable levels faster than other regions, allowing most Asian central banks room to cut interest rates earlier this year.

But he stressed that the external environment in Asia has also become more challenging, reflected in possibly weakened global demand and more trade restrictions.

According to IMF estimation, there were roughly 1,000 trade restrictive measures in 2019, but in 2023, the number had surged to 3,000.

The full report of IMF's Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and Pacific will be available for download on IMF website on October 31.

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report released on Tuesday, the IMF maintained its global growth forecast in 2024 at 3.2 percent, consistent with its projection in July. Emerging and developing Asia, meanwhile, is expected to grow 5.3 percent.

Asia remains powerhouse of global growth: IMF

More than 1.413 billion cross-regional passenger trips were estimated nationwide during the first week of China's 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, the country's Ministry of Transport said Sunday.

Average daily cross-provincial passenger trips are expected to exceed 200 million, up 2 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, falls on Feb 17 this year. This year's Spring Festival official holiday lasts nine days, with the travel rush running through March 13.

Each year during this period, millions of people working, studying or living away from their hometowns travel home for the Spring Festival, China's most important traditional holiday.

The country's railway system has seen increasing passenger traffic during the first week of the travel rush. On Sunday, railways nationwide were expected to handle 13.25 million passenger trips, with 1,688 extra passenger trains scheduled to meet travel demand.

Self-driving trips have dominated the total travel, with the road traffic increasing 2.1 percent year on year since the Spring Festival travel rush began.

Civil aviation passenger volumes have also experienced a surge. On Sunday, the country's civil aviation sector was expected to carry 2.39 million passengers on an estimated 19,614 flights, marking a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent.

Over 1.4 bln trips expected in first week of China’s Spring Festival travel rush