Big economies eye China to help fight recession

Sun Nov 9, 2008 12:29pm EST

By Anna Willard

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's biggest economies turned to China on Sunday to help soften an expected recession in many countries as Beijing approved a huge stimulus plan, the latest twist in a global effort to boost growth.

Finance ministers, senior officials and leading central bank governors from the Group of 20 were meeting in Brazil to discuss ways to bolster their economies, which represent about 90 percent of global output.

Officials said on Saturday the measures were likely to include plans to boost demand -- such as through infrastructure projects or tax cuts -- and possible interest rate reductions in some countries.

"For those countries which are able, the encouragement is to take measures of support," French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Sunday.

"The Chinese minister said they were determined to support internal demand," she told reporters, referring to talks in Brazil's business capital among countries in the G20 group of advanced and big emerging economies.

The head of the World Bank and other senior officials attending the G20's annual meeting all singled out China as an important player in the attempts to kick-start growth.

In Europe, the main stimulus for growth would come from lowering interest rates, Lagarde said, reiterating her previous comments that a European Central Bank rate cut is likely soon.

"As far as the Europeans are concerned we have our monetary effort which is in the process of being consolidated with successive rate cuts and the anticipated rate cut maybe in the next few weeks," Lagarde said.

In China, the government approved a huge stimulus package worth nearly $600 billion through 2010 to boost domestic demand and offset a fall in exports, official media said.

News agency Xinhua said the money will pay for the construction of airports, railways and highways across China.

The Chinese cabinet also announced an explicit shift in monetary policy, which it now described as "moderately easy."

China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said on Saturday that the Asian export powerhouse, one of the few remaining engines of global growth, wanted to maintain its economic expansion, which he forecast at 8 percent to 9 percent in 2009.

Some economists have predicted the Chinese economic growth rate could slow to less than 8 percent next year, down from double-digit levels in the past five years until this year.

The finance chiefs attending the G20 meetings in Sao Paulo are trying to come up with proposals for their leaders to take to an emergency summit on the financial crisis next weekend in Washington.

That meeting is also likely to address calls from some large emerging economies, such as Brazil, for a greater say in the way global finance is managed, long the preserve of the world's developed economies.

Other issues under discussion include new regulation for financial markets to prevent a repeat of the credit crisis that erupted last year and has pushed many leading economies toward recession.

(Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Todd Benson)