IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast continued impressive growth in emerging markets and developing countries led by India and China in 2007, even with global growth slowing mildly to 4.9 percent. However, the United States may witness somewhat slower growth, while Europe and Japan would have continued solid growth, he said describing 2006 as "another robust year for the global economy.While the US economy has slowed, the rest of the world has remained on track. The euro area grew at its fastest pace in six years in 2006, and the economy's forward momentum looks solid. Turning to emerging market and developing countries IMF expects them to continue to grow strongly this year albeit at a somewhat less brisk pace than 2006, drawing continuous support from favourable financial conditions and in many cases from strong commodity prices. China and India continue to lead the way, he said. India's broad-based expansion gathered momentum in the course of last year, running at around 9 percent, but growth should moderate some in 2007. However, spare capacity in the Indian economy remains very low, and overheating remains a risk, despite monetary policy tightening.Elsewhere in emerging Asia, the near-term outlook remains very positive, partly reflecting intraregional trade linkages and China's strong economy as well as prudent macroeconomic managementIn China, growth moderated slightly in the second half of 2006 partly reflecting measures to cool fixed asset investment from its recent rapid pace. But nevertheless, the economy is expected to grow by around 10 percent in 2007, and IMF sees risks in China to be on the upside. In recent years, the combination of technological progress and increasingly open global trading and financial systems and more resilient macroeconomic policy frameworks have laid the foundation for superlative growth.