Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, defended her positive view of China's economy, as global economic and financial leaders gathered in Washington this week to convene the World Bank-IMF spring meeting.

"It's normal that (China's) growth rate is a little bit lower than it was a few years back, perfectly legitimate, difficult but manageable," Lagarde said during an interview with Stephen Sackur, host of BBC's HARD-talk, at George Washington University on Thursday.

"The Chinese economy is going through a massive transformation," she said. "It's moving from being vastly export driven to being much more focused on the domestic market, it's moving from heavy-industry based to light industry and predominantly service driven, and it is clearly moving in terms of opening to the rest of the world."