IMF's Georgia says China understands that export growth model of past no longer viable

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said there was widespread recognition in China that the export-driven model the Asian country relied on to fuel growth cannot be sustained and it needs to switch to consumption-driven growth.

But making that switch is not easy, Georgieva told an event hosted by the Milken Institute.

"We have a whole country of 1.4 billion people that is now seeing their fortunes changing," she said. "They were a country that for four decades knew only one thing - up, up, up. ... Now they're turning into what I would say (is) a normal country, a country that goes up, that goes down."