Davos participants hail China’s strong 2025 growth despite global headwinds

As global uncertainties weighed on growth, China stood out in 2025 with strong resilience, contributing most to the world economy, said distinguished figures at the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5 percent year on year in 2025, hitting a record 140.19 trillion yuan (about 20 trillion U.S. dollars) and achieving the annual growth target, official data showed Monday.

The Chinese economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) was marked by four consecutive leaps, surpassing 110, 120, 130, and 140 trillion yuan, despite multiple unexpected shocks.

For many years, China has contributed roughly 30 percent of global economic growth, cementing its role as an indispensable "ballast" for the world economy.

Forum participants observed that maintaining rapid growth is difficult for an economy of China's size. They emphasized that China’s robust economic results helped stabilize global confidence amid geopolitical challenges and trade frictions.

"China has been an important engine of growth over the past at least two decades, if not more. And so this is a very important of course data point that China is growing at this pace in this economic environment and obviously contributing to the picture that the IMF put out that we seem to have more resiliency in the world economy than maybe many predicted," said Mirek Dusek, managing director of the WEF.

"In 2025, despite the tariffs and all what has happened in trade and you have grown 5 percent that is more or less what was the target. It's important to understand is that China needs to grow between 4.5 and 5 percent and that will make the world economy also more stable because you are so important to the world economy, so it is something to be celebrated," said Rebecca Greenspan, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Under the theme "A Spirit of Dialogue," the five-day WEF event opened Monday, drawing nearly 3,000 leaders and experts worldwide to discuss five pressing global challenges, including enhancing cooperation, unlocking new sources of growth and deploying innovation at scale and responsibly.

Davos participants hail China’s strong 2025 growth despite global headwinds

The death toll from a shopping mall fire in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi climbed to 60 after at least 30 bodies were recovered from a shop of the multi-story building, officials said on Wednesday.

The bodies were recovered from the mezzanine floor of the shopping mall, said senior police official Syed Asad Raza, adding that several people are still missing and a search operation is continuing to recover them.

He said that the rescue efforts are being carried out using sophisticated machines, and debris is being removed from the collapsed sections of the building.

The official said that the rescue workers are facing difficulties reaching some parts of the building due to smoke and heat inside the damaged structure, adding that one part of the building is cleared and the other two parts are being combed to rescue people under the rubble.

Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi said that an investigation into the incident has been launched as authorities look into the fire from multiple angles.

Death toll from shopping mall fire in Pakistan's Karachi rises to 60