The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a seminar titled China: Economic Outlook, Risks and Policy Challenges on Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at the CSEP Auditorium, 6, Dr Jose P Rizal Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021. 

The seminar featured a conversation between Sonali Jain-Chandra, Assistant Director, Division Chief and Mission Chief for China, IMF and  Janak Raj, Senior Fellow, CSEP.  

About the event 

The presentation and discussion focused on the key issues facing the Chinese economy today, drawing from the work done for the recently published 2024 IMF Article IV consultation with China. The presentation outlined the economic outlook and risks amid weak domestic demand following the continuing real estate contraction and intensifying fragmentation. There were discussions about the key policy recommendations to support domestic demand as well as recommendations for upgrading policy frameworks. The presentation also touched upon medium-term policies to reignite sustainable growth and concluded with a discussion of trade fragmentation and external spillovers. 

Presenter 

Sonali Jain-Chandra is an Assistant Director, Division Chief and Mission Chief for China in the International Monetary Fund’s Asia and Pacific Department. She has wide-ranging country experience at the IMF, also having worked on India, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong SAR, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Bhutan. She was also in the Asia and Pacific Department’s Regional Studies Division and has authored many chapters of the IMF publication Regional Economic Outlook. She also previously worked in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department on vulnerabilities in emerging markets and advanced economies. Ms Jain-Chandra’s research interests and publications have mainly focused on capital flows, international banking linkages, labour markets, fiscal rules, income inequality, macroeconomics of gender, and financial inclusion and deepening. She holds a PhD in Economics from Columbia University; a BA and MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University; and a BA in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. 

Moderator 

Janak Raj is a Senior Fellow and leads the macroeconomic segment in the Growth, Finance and Development vertical at CSEP. He also works specifically on fiscal federalism in the health sector, climate finance and multilateral development banks (MDBs) reforms. He is currently also a member of the JM Financial Centre for Financial Research of IIM Udaipur. He has nearly four decades of experience working in the Reserve Bank of India, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services). Janak Raj served as an Executive Director in the Reserve Bank of India and as a member of its statutory Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). He also served as Principal Adviser of Monetary Policy Department and International Department of the RBI and headed its Department of Economic Policy and Research. At the IMF Washington DC, he was Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka. He served as an RBI nominee director on the Governing Board of the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and as a Senior Consultant in the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance. He has a PhD in Economics from IIT Bombay. 

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.