Chinese GDB to grow 8pc in 2009

China: The Chinese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow this year around 8 percent, an absolutely exceptional calculation, amid the current global crisis, according to predictions of financial institutions.

Lian Ping, main economist of the Bank of Communications, one of the biggest in the commercial sector, stated that a turnaround of the Chinese economy could be starting from the second semester of 2009.

Amid contradictory world predictions on the next evolution of the crisis, the Chinese expert’s statement confirms the expectation elaborated by the government for the rest of the present year.

Judging by some economic indicators, the national economy is leaving its harder period, Lian Ping said.

The analysis contradicts Stephen Roach, US stockbroker firm Morgan Stanley’s President for Asia, a man who had a pessimistic presage, betting for a growth of the Asian nation of only 5.5 percent.

In the opinion of Roach, the weakness with which China closed 2008, when it got 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, and the poor beginning in 2009, will affect the results for next months.

Lian Ping believes that China will not be able to benefit immediately from a possible recovery of the United States, because it predicts that the average of world growth during the 2009-2011 period could be of only two percent. On the other hand, the crisis probably changes the habits of consumption of the US citizens who will be more to spend less and save more, Roach said. Beijing, Tuesday, Prensa Latina