China’s economic relationship with the rest of the world is roughly in balance, according to the IMF — a significant change after years of criticism from other countries that China posed a risk to the global economy.

The country’s current account surplus had dropped to close to zero, the IMF said yesterday, for the first time since 2012, when the IMF began reporting on the imbalances that afflict the world’s large economies. The IMF’s report undermines US president Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on Chinese economic policy.

For years China’s current account had showed it to be a big net lender to the world, running a surplus as high as10 per cent of GDP in 2007 — a trend which critics said meant China was failing to buy enough goods and other services from other countries. But in recent years its economy has become increasingly reliant on domestic demand — as opposed to exports and foreign investments — and that has helped rebalance its trade position.