Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 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's 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," said Lagarde during an interview with Stephen Sackur, host of BBC's HARDtalk, at George Washington University on Thursday, an appearance that was listed on the spring meeting's official agenda.

"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."

Lagarde was adamant in her comments, which came in response to Sackur's pointed suggestion that "the world is losing its faith in China".

Lagarde conveyed a similarly positive message during an earlier press conference at IMF headquarters on Thursday morning.

"We've reset China's economic growth rate to 6.5 percent taking into account the measures that have been announced by the Chinese authority in its latest five-year plan," said Lagarde.

charlenecai@chinadailyusa.com