RECOVERY IN 2010?

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Asia's economies could recover next year, but warned that the export-dependent continent could not pull through on its own.

Strauss-Kahn said Asia needed to boost household demand to reduce its traditional reliance on exports to the United States and Europe, but such a shift would not happen overnight.

"It's impossible for Asia to have a recovery while the rest of the world is in bad shape," he said. "It's very uncertain. A worse outcome can not be ruled out. There's some upside risk but there's a lot of downside risk."

Asia's economies are likely to grow at an average rate of more than 5 percent next year with growth in some countries set to pickup quickly once the environment improves, he added.

The IMF sees Asia growing just 2.7 percent this year, down from a November forecast of 4.9 percent.

Source:Xinhua

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