Uncertainty looms amid slow recovery (2)

Weaker demand from abroad has hit Chinese exports this year.

In November, the country's exports increased by only 2.9 percent year-on-year, down sharply from 11.6 percent in October.

Total foreign trade expanded only 1.5 percent in the month, making it effectively impossible to meet the country's goal of seeing a 10 percent increase for the full year.

Although China's manufacturing activity hit a 14-month high in December, a sub-index tracking new export orders was one of the few such gauges that showed a contraction, falling in line with economists' expectations that the country's exports will remain lackluster in December and into 2013.

The export-driven growth model will gradually lose its advantages, helping the Chinese economy rebalance, said Huang Mengfu, honorary chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

"To strengthen international cooperation and improve internationalization will be the chief way of solving the global crisis," Huang said at a forum in Sanya, Hainan province, on Sunday.

Wang Jianxi, executive vice-president and chief risk officer at China Investment Corp, expressed optimism about Europe's prospects for economic recovery, an outcome that would help China achieve stable growth in the coming year.

"It is possible that the EU will still have room for economic growth because of its relatively advanced capacity for development," Wang said.