'There's some concern about overheating in China’: Citi CEO

Citi CEO Jane Fraser joins 'Influencers with Andy Serwer' to discuss growth in China and throughout Asia.

Video Transcript

ANDY SERWER: You set up a commercial banking desk in Singapore to help emerging Chinese companies expand across Southeast Asia. But I'm wondering, sort of, understanding, judging, and then figuring out how to play China must be very complex. And I'm wondering what your thinking is.

JANE FRASER: Yes and no. We've been in China, I think it's almost just over 120 years. So we have seen China through many phases. We're on the ground there and, you know, have a long history in the country. So that does help. And we serve many of the multinational companies, helping them do business on the ground and many investors doing business on the ground there.

What I'd say about it is that clearly, it's undergoing material shifts, as it has done, and has taken some pretty impressive strategic shifts over the last decade. And you think of the pivot to more of a consumer-oriented driver, more self-sufficiency of their growth, as opposed to the dependency on export and infrastructure.

And, you know, that's obviously one that the government is pursuing quite aggressively right now. That does mean slower growth. And I think there's some concern about overheating in China right now. There's a focus on deleveraging for sure. But as we look in the longer run, it's going to certainly be a major engine of growth for the world as it has been.

But I think it's come off the boil for sure. But I think, you know, bubbling away too ferociously isn't great either. So, yeah, I mean, we look at it with some caution in the immediate term, but the role China will play in the world is only going to increase in its importance and one we'll all have to manage carefully.