IMF: Urgent reforms needed as Chinese problems mount

China needs to implement reforms with more urgency as the economy faces growing vulnerabilities and there are fewer buffers to deal with any shocks, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said yesterday.

“The near-term growth outlook has turned more buoyant due to recent policy support,” said David Lipton, first deputy managing director of the IMF at the end of a visit to Beijing, according to a copy of his prepared remarks provided to Reuters.

“The medium-term outlook, however, is more uncertain due to rapidly rising credit, structural excess capacity, and the increasingly large, opaque, and interconnected financial sector.”