Asian growth led by India and China to aid global recovery – IMF

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today said it expects economic growth in Asia, led by India and China, to continue pushing the global recovery.

"We expect Asia to continue leading the global recovery ...and to grow by eight percent in 2010, before moderating to a more sustainable rate of about 7 percent in 2011," the IMF Director for Asia and Pacific, Anoop Singh told reporters on Saturday.

" China and India will continue to lead the region's growth. For China and India, we project growth in 2010 at 10.5 percent and 9.7 percent respectively," Singh said at a news conference here held on the sidelines of the IMF World Bank meeting.

Asia's strong performance since the global financial crisis has continued unabated in 2010, he said, adding that the region was expected to remain important source of global growth in the period ahead.

Singh said though activity in Asia has proceeded above trend in almost all countries, the speed of the recovery and well as its composition have remained quite different across Asia.

"In China, output growth has moderated somewhat, owing to slower credit growth and the effects of measures to cool property markets. Private domestic demand continued to support growth in India and Indonesia, while strong export growth and inventory accumulation boosted economic activity in the more export-dominated Asian economies," Singh said.

He added in Japan, the recovery had become more broad based in the first half of the year but remained sluggish and had lost some momentum recently.





The IMF official said economic activity in many Asian-low income countries, was thanks to higher external demand, strong investment in the commodity sector and still accommodative macroeconomic policies.



In Sri Lanka and Mongolia the economic outlook has improved markedly, also reflecting Fund-supported programs, he said.



Singh said that for sustaining robust growth over the medium term, Asia will require continuous progress in re-balancing growth toward domestic demand.