China faces complex external economic environment

BEIJING - China will face a complicated external economic environment this year, even though world economic growth momentum will be slightly stronger than 2013, the country's top statistics bureau said Thursday.

There will be continued divergence of growth rates in both developed and developing nations. Some developing countries will have weak growth momentum, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

Last year, world economy growth slowed, as data from both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank showed expansion dropped by 0.1 percentage points from a year ago, the statement said.

Meanwhile, divergence in growth continued in both developed and developing nations.

Among developed economies, the United States continued with a moderate recovery, Japan's recovery accelerated on its fiscal and monetary stimulus while the eurozone still suffered recession, the NBS said.

Economies in East and Southeast Asia saw relatively fast growth, while the "fragile five", a grouping of emerging markets at risk -- India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa -- had difficulties with economic imbalances and capital outflows, it said.

The World Bank has forecast that global economic growth will pick up by 0.8 percentage points to 3.2 percent this year, while trade growth will accelerate by 1.5 percentage points to 4.6 percent.

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