On May 22, Prof. Robert J. Barro, a renowned economist and professor at the University of Harvard, was invited to give an academic report entitled "Growth in China and the World" in SEPKU.

In the lecture, he systematically expounded his latest research results about China and the world’s economic growth path based on the Conditional-convergence model.

Based on a study of data from 1950 to 2014, Professor Barro pointed out that real GDP growth is gradually converging at a rate of 2% to 3% per year and will eventually converge to a long-term stable rate of growth. The level is affected by the common factors such as the per capital GDP base, population life expectancy, fertility rate, enrollment rate, fixed capital investment rate, economic opening level, corporate tax burden and other factors. Then, Professor Barro said that China`s average life expectancy in the past 20 years, the reduction of fertility level, the improvement of openness and the more perfect legal system and social order have made positive contributions to the increase of GDP per capita. Professor Barro predicts that China`s per capita GDP growth will be around 4.7% per annum between 2015 and 2020; China`s per capita GDP growth will steadily decline to 2% of the world`s long-term average after 2020.