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Asia-PacificApril 1 2016

ADB president confident of Asia's continued ascent

Ahead of the 2016 Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Frankfurt, the president of the ADB discusses China’s slowdown and reform agenda while underscoring that other parts of Asia – such as India – are still growing strongly. Interview by Stefania Palma.
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Takehiko Nakao, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is not worried about China. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) may be growing at the lowest rate since 1990 – 6.9% in 2015 – but he is keen to emphasise that this is not synonymous with a collapsing economy. 

“China’s growth rate will decrease but there will be no hard landing thanks to China’s consumer-based growth and the growth of the services sector," says Mr Nakao. "Now that China’s current account surplus has dropped from 10% to 2% of GDP, domestic demand will become far more important to sustain growth. There is still scope for fiscal and monetary policies. Also, China’s per capita GDP is below that of developed economies, meaning there is still room to grow.” 

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