The International Monetary Fund recently released the findings of its visit to China from May 23 to June 5 to hold talks on Article IV with China.

Speaking about the visit at a conference in Beijing on June 5, David Lipton, the first deputy managing director of the IMF, said China's economy was stable in early 2019 after the slowdown in 2018, which reflected a wide range of policy support. However, tensions in trade had generated uncertainties.

In other comments, Lipton said: “Growth is expected to moderate to 6.2 percent and 6.0 percent respectively in 2019 and 2020."

And he believed that growth could slow to 5.5 percent by 2024. Also, as trade tensions could escalate, this could make the near-term outlook uncertain.

Lipton also said that he found that the policies announced so far could keep growth stable in 2019 and 2020 even if the United States hiked tariffs. But he said that some additional policies could be needed if trade tensions escalated further.

He also pointed out at the conference that an open, stable, transparent and a rules-based international trade system would be beneficial to the global economy, and that China should work together with its trade partners to address problems in the trading system.

In his speech at the briefing, Lipton said that China has made outstanding progress in reducing external imbalances in the past years, and that better exchange rate flexibility and a functioning foreign exchange market will be helpful for the financial system to prepare for capital flows that are volatile.

And he added that the progress on structural reforms had contributed to the opening-up of the economy in a bigger way and led to a greater role for market forces.

He further said that state-owned enterprises reform should continue, such as hardening budget constraints and removing implicit guarantees, to achieve competitiveness fairly.

"In response to the complicated economic situation, a policy framework that is more market-based, modernized and transparent is required," Lipton added.