The World Bank on Thursday raised its 2008 growth forecast for China to 9.8 percent from 9.4 percent, saying the country's strong domestic economy and sustained competitiveness would help it weather any global weakness.
"Amid weaker and uncertain global prospects, China's growth will be supported by strong international competitiveness and a robust domestic economy," David Dollar, the bank's country director for China, told reporters in Beijing.
China has set a growth target for this year of 8 percent following last year's 11.9 percent. Just two months ago, the World Bank revised its growth estimate for China downward to 9.4 percent from 9.6 percent, at the time citing weakening demand for its exports.
The back-and-forth revisions reflect the uncertainties prevailing at a time when the U.S. economic outlook remains murky due to the fallout from the mortgage lending crisis. They also result from a revision in China's own gross domestic product growth estimate for 2007, which was raised by 0.5 percentage point following the bank's most recent half-yearly report in early April.
"Global growth is on course to slow further and commodity price-driven inflation has become a complicating factor everywhere. These developments imply considerably more international uncertainty and risk," Dollar said.
"The upward revision to our growth forecast largely reflects revised GDP data showing stronger service sector growth," he said.
The bank lauded China's progress in combating inflation, which fell to 7.7 percent in May from 8.5 percent in April. It forecast that the inflation benchmark, the consumer price index, will rise 6 percent for all of 2008.
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