Beijing, Apr 04: China is increasingly becoming the engine of the East Asia regional economy, a new World Bank report says. The Global Development Finance 2003 report released by the World Bank yesterday says that against a backdrop of relative stagnation in Japan and volatile US demand, China continued to strongly increase output.

China's performance helped to drive the recovery in East Asia where an average regional growth of more than six per cent is expected for the next two years, according to the report. Despite various speculations about China's growth in the next 10 to 15 years, analysts seem to agree that growth of the global economy is increasingly dependent on rising markets like China.

Asian Development Bank president Tadao Chino said, “China would provide unprecedented opportunities for Asian countries in the next two decades. The growth of China's domestic market would inevitably create opportunities for Asian countries to increase their exports.” He said that in the longer term, these changing trade patterns should reduce Asia's dependence on western markets, and help to mitigate the risk of a global recession caused by a simultaneous downturn in the US, Japanese and European economies.

Bureau Report