Interview: China's growth helpful factor in global recovery, world coordination crucial

China's economic growth is not only important to itself, but also a driving force of recovery in the Asia Pacific region and other areas, while coordination across regions is crucial for a sustainable global recovery, Anoop Singh, director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Saturday.

"China carries out an important fiscal and monetary stimulus package, which helped raise China's demand of imports, commodities, capital goods and other goods, and China is a very helpful factor in global recovery," Singh said at an exclusive interview with Xinhua during the ongoing Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

He noted that the downside risks of the global economy remained high, but China and other Asian economies are leading the global growth, adding that "we do feel that Asian countries have new instruments to deal with any new downturn risk."

He contended that the possibility of a global "double-dip recession" is slim, but some risks still remain high and even on the increase, especially in some advanced economies.

"If countries collaborate with each other, there are great benefits for the global economy, in terms of recovery, gross domestic product (GDP) growth and employment creation," he added.

When commenting on the currency issue, he pointed out that "we are going through a difficult time globally, but it is very important to have policy coordination," adding that the IMF will continue to play a constructive role in policy cooperation across regions.

High-ranking officials from the financial sector and experts from around the world are attending the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank opening here on Friday, discussing solutions to promote sustainable world economic recovery and global financial stability.

Growth in the advanced economies is expected to expand by 2.7 percent this year, and by 2.2 percent in 2011, following a decline in output of 3.2 percent in 2009. Growth in emerging and developing economies is projected to be over 7.1 percent this year and 6.4 percent in 2011, following a modest 2.5-percent gain in 2009, the IMF predicted in its latest World Economic Outlook report released earlier this week.

The world economy, led by emerging markets and developing countries, is forecast to grow by 4.8 percent in 2010 before falling back to 4.2 percent next year, according to the report.

Source: Xinhua