WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- China's economy continues to perform strongly, with reforms progressing in several key areas, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday.

"Executive Directors welcomed the authorities' strategy to decisively shift the policy focus from high-speed to high-quality growth, and commended recent reform progress," the IMF said in a statement after its annual review of China's economy.

"They noted that China's growth outlook remains strong and saw this as an opportunity to accelerate rebalancing and other reform efforts, building on the existing agenda," said the Washington-based fund.

China's reforms have made good progress in several key areas, including a wide range of regulatory reforms to reduce financial sector risks, intensifying anti-pollution efforts and accelerating the opening-up of the economy, according to the IMF.

"We're very encouraged by the increased focus on achieving high quality growth," but there should be an acceleration of reforms to achieve this goal, James Daniel, assistant director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the IMF and its mission chief for China, told Xinhua.

IMF executive directors also welcomed China's strong commitment to free trade and multilateralism.

In terms of the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), the IMF said the RMB was "broadly stable" against the basket of currencies in 2017 and was assessed to be "broadly in line with fundamentals."

Cover image: International Monetary Fund logo is seen outside the headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank spring meeting in Washington, US, April 20, 2018. (File photo: VCG)