China remains major stabilizer of world economy Dyed Color Textile Nep Yarn

It's reassuring to the world that China's economy has managed to maintain its steady growth and will continue to serve as a major stabilizer for global growth.

The latest sign is that the world's second-largest economy expanded by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2019, the same reading as the fourth quarter of 2018, echoing the upbeat projections that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced earlier.

While the IMF downgraded 2019 global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points last week, it revised its projection for China to 6.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from its previous estimation in January.

As Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department put it, China is expected to account for more than 30 percent of global growth this year.

The IMF's forecast is based on China's successful efforts to foster new driving forces of the economy, which could be better understood with a closer look at the latest data.

A relatively weak industrial output in the first two months triggered concerns about a loss of momentum. However, the manufacturing sector bucked the trend of slowdown in March. The country's industrial output in March reported a record-high since July 2014.