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Countries worldwide host vibrant events to welcome Spring Festival

China

China

China

Countries worldwide host vibrant events to welcome Spring Festival

2026-02-09 17:37 Last Updated At:02-10 13:26

As the 2026 Spring Festival approaches, countries around the world are hosting a wide range of cultural events, concerts and festivities to celebrate the occasion, highlighting growing people-to-people exchanges and shared goodwill.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is the most important traditional holiday for Chinese people. In recent years, the joy of the festival has been reaching more cultures around the world.

On Saturday, the 2026 China-Vietnam Good-Neighborliness and Friendship Spring Festival Concert was held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam, along with several members of the Politburo, attended the event together with more than 700 representatives from both countries, including members of friendly organizations, Chinese-funded institutions in Vietnam, media professionals and students.

During the concert, artists from the China National Opera House and Vietnamese performers jointly presented works including Spring Festival Overture and The Butterfly Lovers, drawing applause and strong emotional responses from the audience.

"We are like one family. This is extremely precious. I truly believe that the more activities like this we have, the deeper the friendship between our two peoples will become," said Dong Quang Vinh, a Vietnamese conductor.

In the Polish town of Otrebusy, a "Happy Spring Festival" cultural performance themed on traditions of ancient states of Jing and Chu was held on Friday, attracting around 600 local residents.

Chinese artists presented a variety of performances, showcasing the unique charm of traditional Chinese culture to local audiences.

"It is very good that this ensemble has come to visit us, to Poland, and that we had Pleasure and privilege to welcome the new Horse Year together. The more Chinese culture we will have elsewhere in the world, the better for the world," said Grzegorz Kolodko, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland.

On Saturday, the 2026 Happy Spring Festival temple fair and cultural performance marking the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Nigeria was also held on in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, drawing widespread participation.

"Happy Spring Festival, I wish them prosperity, I wish them success, and I wish for an even greater partnership between Nigeria and China," said Judy Melifonwu, Director of International Relations for the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership Office.

In the United Arab Emirates, a 10-minute fireworks display from the world's fireworks hub of Liuyang, Hunan Province, lit up the night sky on the night of February 8 to welcome the Year of the Horse.

Countries worldwide host vibrant events to welcome Spring Festival

Countries worldwide host vibrant events to welcome Spring Festival

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its global economic growth forecasts for 2026 to 3.1 percent in the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report published on Tuesday, while keeping its projection for 2027 at 3.2 percent.

This marks a deceleration from the estimated 3.4 percent growth achieved in 2025. Before the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, the bottom-up forecasts for global growth would have been 3.4 percent in 2026 and 3.2 percent in 2027.

The forecast incorporates the impact of the war and assumes that it will be limited in duration, intensity and scope, with disruptions fading by mid-2026.

Under the reference forecast, global headline inflation is expected to increase to 4.4 percent in 2026 and decline to 3.7 percent in 2027.

If the conflict and the ensuing spike in oil prices last longer, global economic growth in 2026 will fall to 2.5 percent, while global inflation will climb to 5.4 percent, according to the report.

In extreme cases, global economic growth in 2026 could drop to two percent, the report warned.

To be specific, the U.S. economy is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2026 and 2.1 percent in 2027, although higher trade barriers introduced since April 2025 are expected to continue to weigh on activity.

In the euro area, growth is projected to decline from 1.4 percent in 2025 to 1.1 percent in 2026 before edging up to 1.2 percent in 2027. The forecasts for 2026 and 2027 are each 0.2 percentage point lower than those compared in the January 2026 WEO Update.

The 2026 growth forecast for emerging market and developing economies is revised down by 0.3 percentage point, to 3.9 percent, while the outlook for advanced economies remains broadly unchanged. With risks still tilted to the downside since the January 2026 WEO Update, the IMF suggested a comprehensive policy package combining domestic measures with coordinated international actions to strengthen resilience and foster adaptability.

It also stated in the report that "trade restrictions play a limited role in correcting imbalances but can worsen output," and urged countries to cooperate and take coordinated actions to restore stability to international economic relations.

IMF lowers global growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1 pct

IMF lowers global growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1 pct

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