Davos, Switzerland: IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday said the slowdown in China would not bring catastrophe for the global economy and that the jolts hitting financial markets were "very normal".
Lagarde spoke on the last day of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos where news this week of decreasing growth in China, the world's second biggest economy, spooked attendees from the global financial elite.
But Lagarde told a panel: "We are not seeing a hard landing... We are seeing an evolution, a big transition which is going to be bumpy.
"We have to get used to it and it's a very normal and proper way to actually move towards a more sustainable and a more quality growth we all hope," she said.
The Chinese government announced this week that its economy grew by 6.9 per cent in 2015, the slowest rate in a quarter century.
Worries of a weak Chinese economy had already sown fears across global markets with share prices plummeting since January 1, also affected by low oil prices as a supply glut destabilises fragile energy-producing countries.
"What on earth is going on is simply the worst start of any year on the record on financial markets ever, it's simple," said French banker Tidjane Thiam, the CEO of Credit Suisse.
"The market is very worried about China of course. They fear we will fall into a global recession," he said.
British finance minister George Osborne, who also faced questions about Britain potentially voting to leave the European Union, said China had overshadowed proceedings at Davos.
"The world has not been very good over previous centuries at accommodating rising powers and it has often led to unhappy outcomes," Osborne said bleakly.
"I think it is massively in our interest that we bring China into the multilateral institutions of the world," he said.