China Important to Stability of Asian Economy: IMFThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) said April 26 that under the current circumstance wherein the world economic growth rate has substantially slowed down, China's economy still maintains a high growth rate, thus becoming an important stabilizing force for the Asian economy.According to the "World Economic Outlook" published by IMF on the same day, "in China, the largest economy in the region, activity remained robust during 2000, propelled by rising exports, recovering private consumption, and higher public spending; inflation turned modestly positive as deflationary pressures receded. Given the deterioration in the external environment, GDP growth is expected to moderate to 7 percent in 2001 while inflation remains subdued." Due to the sharp slowdown of the US economy, stalling of the Japanese economy and weakening of European economic growth, the world economic growth rate will fall down to 3.2 percent this year from 4.8 percent of 2000, says the report. The economy of Hong Kong SAR, in the opinion of the report, "after a strong 'V-shaped' recovery, growth is expected to slow markedly to 3.5 percent in 2001, in part reflecting slowing export growth in the Mainland, the weakening regional situation, and falling retail sales." The report also thinks that activity in Taiwan Province of China is expected to weaken, mainly reflecting the downturn in the global electronics cycle, as well as financial sector problems. By PD Online staff member Deng Gang |
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