China must boost productivity to maintain growth, says IMF

The secretary of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently said that China needs to lay emphasis on economic structure reform and higher productivity in order to maintain sustainable growth in the long run.

After three decades of double-digit growth, China has now realized that structural reform is critical for it to sustain higher-quality growth, Lin Jianhai told Xinhua on Saturday on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting, The Chinadaily reported.

The service sector has potential to play a bigger role in boosting growth, as it accounts for 60 percent of a nation's economic output globally, but only 40 percent in China, Lin said.

He added that China has come under rising pressure in raising productivity to keep its economy expanding. During 2000-2008, growth in labor productivity contributed 40 percent of the annual growth. After that, its contribution dropped to about 30 percent.

He further added that China should increase spending on education and research and development and improve institutional governance to boost productivity.