Interview: China will drive world economic growth this year, expert says

MADRID -- China will be the main engine of global economic expansion this year, Gonzalo Garland, professor of economics at the prestigious IE University in Madrid, told Xinhua in an interview.

The economist noted that China saw moderate growth in the first few months of this year and will gather momentum in the second half.

"Things seem to be better now as we are moving into the second half of the year, and I'm seeing that most forecasts done by international organizations are expecting growth for China for the whole year to be 5 percent or more," he said.

It's expected that as countries move towards more value-added industries with higher productivity, economic growth will slow down, he argued. If China can grow at 5 percent, that is a "significant growth rate," he said.

He concluded that China will continue to develop with its vast economic potential, drawing parallels between China and some other Asian countries that have transformed their economies.

"China is becoming a huge economy and will continue to be so. Here we have a country with a huge population, investing in productivity, education, R&D and changing the model to more value-added," he said.