"The outgoing 2009 will surely go into the history of world economy as a very extraordinary year, and China's performance in this year will be an outstanding chapter," a UN economic experts said Monday in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Hong Pingfan, chief for global economic monitoring of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), told Xinhua that China makes a great contribution to the world economic recovery by adopting effective policies.

The global financial crisis, which originated from the U.S. sub- prime mortgage crisis, dealt a blow to the real economy in the world in 2009, he said.

Despite the fact that the world economic situation has been on the mend since the second quarter of this year, the world gross product (WGP) is estimated to fall by 2.2 percent for 2009, the first time for the world to see the drop in WGP since the end of the Second World War, he said, citing the first chapter of "the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2010 (WESP)," which was launched early this month.

"At the same time, 2009 marks a turning point that the international community registered an initial victory in responding to the global financial crisis, thus avoiding the recurrence of the Great Depression, thanks to the global efforts," Hong said, adding that since the second half of the passing year, the world is out of the financial crisis step by step, despite of many difficulties and challenges on the way forward.

"In this special year, China has made a great contribution to the world economy in the global fight against the financial crisis, " he said. China recorded a growth rate of more than eight percent in 2009, thus helping the Asian country out of the list of more than recession-stricken countries in the developing world, which saw their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in downturn in two consecutive seasons.

"There is no recession recorded in the Chinese economy," he said.

The financial crisis brought about declining exports and shrinking demands, thus posing a grave challenge for the development of the Chinese economy, he said.

Thanks to the resolute and prompt stimulus policies adopted by the Chinese government, China shored up more domestic demands to offset part of the negative impact on exports, and struggled its way up from the bottom since the first quarter of 2009, he said.

"It is of a great significance for China to take the lead in its efforts to get out of the economic lowliness," he said. "China 's economic recovery not only increases the overall global demands, but also strengthens the global confidence in dealing with the financial crisis."

At first, the United States and some European countries have underestimated the impact of the financial crisis, and their responding measures were not very effective, he said.

In fact, China actively calls upon countries to adopt effective macro-economic policy, safeguard the fair, free and open system of global trade and investment in a bid to ensure the free flow of commodities, investment and service in the world, he said.

Meanwhile, China plays an active role in promoting the reform of the international monetary system, initiating such a reform in a fair, just, tolerant and orderly manner and increasing the representativeness and voices of developing countries in the world financial institutes, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, he said.

Thanks to great efforts by China and some other developing countries, the Group of 20, which includes both developed and developing nations, replaces the Group of seven industrialized countries, a body exclusively for advanced nations, as the major international platform for coordinating world economic and financial policies, he said.

China will surely play greater contribution to the world economy in the coming 2010, apart from difficulties and challenges the country faces in the process of its economic development, Hong added.

Comments