Thursday, October 9, 2008

Australian minister says China's continued growth to help Australia

Australian Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said on Thursday his country was benefiting from a Chinese economy which was little affected so far by weakening global growth.

"China is now a major influence in the world economy and it's significant that the IMF doesn't downgrade its growth prospects," Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner told ABC Radio.

The International Monetary Fund , in a global outlook report released Wednesday night, predicts China's economic growth will drop only marginally to 9.3 percent in 2009, compared to world growth of 3.0 percent. It forecasts the Australian economy will grow 2.5 percent in 2008 and 2.2 percent in 2009 after 4.2 percent growth in 2007.

"Exports are obviously significant but the domestic growth in China is really what's driving its very high overall growth rate and, of course, its demand for minerals, particularly Australian minerals," he said.

Tanner said Australia was well positioned to continue selling "an awful lot" of exports to China, which he believed would be one of the important factors that were protecting Australia to some extent, from the influences of the U.S. financial crisis.

Source: Xinhua

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