IMF forecasts 6.6% growth for China

The International Monetary Fund has forecast that China's economy will grow 6.6 percent in 2018 — which is unchanged from its April projection. It made the prediction in its latest World Economic Outlook, which was released on Monday. The outlook stresses that the risk that current trade tensions will escalate is the greatest near-term threat to global growth.

Amid rising tensions around international trade, the broad global expansion that began about two years ago has plateaued and become less balanced, said Maury Obstfeld, director of the IMF research department, who spoke at a news conference in Washington.

"We continue to project global growth rates of just about 3.9 percent for both this year and next," Obstfeld said. "China continues to grow in line with our earlier projections."

Growth in China is projected to moderate from 6.9 percent in 2017 to 6.6 percent in 2018 and 6.4 percent in 2019, as regulatory tightening of the financial sector takes hold and external demand softens, the IMF said in its July report.