China’s Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an held talks with European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity Valdis Dombrovskis, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis at their invitation on the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings and the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on Oct 16, 2026. They exchanged views on China-EU macroeconomic policies and other issues. Liao Min, China’s Vice Minister of Finance, accompanied him.

Lan said that the world economy currently faces multiple challenges. As major economies, China and the EU should encourage all parties to practice true multilateralism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism in all forms, strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, maintain the stability of international industrial and supply chains, and inject impetus into global economic growth.

Lan stressed that global imbalances are a complex economic structural issue arising from multiple factors, including the development of economic globalization, the international division of labor, the dominant position of major currencies, and countries’ macroeconomic policy orientations. In recent years, global imbalances have also been increasingly affected by non-economic factors such as geopolitics and protectionism. All parties should take a comprehensive, objective and balanced view of imbalances and promote balanced and sustainable global economic growth through openness, cooperation, and macroeconomic policy coordination.

China is accelerating efforts to foster a new development paradigm in which domestic circulation serves as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforce each other, with expanding domestic demand serving as a key strategic pillar for the economy. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), China will place greater emphasis on expanding domestic demand, investing in people, and openness and sharing, with a view to achieving effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy and continuing to provide opportunities and important support for global economic growth. China is willing to make full use of mechanisms such as the China-EU High-Level Economic and Financial Dialogue to communicate with the EU on improving global economic governance, strengthening macroeconomic policy coordination, and other issues.

The EU side said that the EU and China are important economic cooperation partners and that the EU attaches importance to deepening policy communication and coordination with China. Worsening global imbalances pose risks to macroeconomic stability, requiring concerted action by all parties to address them more quickly. Major economies should all advance structural reforms and continuously optimize their economic structures. The EU is deepening the development of its single market, with a focus on increasing investment and enhancing competitiveness. The EU looks forward to strengthening macroeconomic policy dialogue with China in the financial and economic fields, engaging in in-depth exchanges on global economic rebalancing, fair competition and other issues, and jointly safeguarding global economic and financial stability.