ASEM finance ministers predict strong global economic growth

Finance ministers from Asian and European countries on Sunday ended a two-day meeting in Vienna boasting of another good year of global economic growth.

The ministers predicted a 4.5 percent rise of global economic output this year, Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, whose country holds the rotating European Union (EU) presidency, said at a news conference after the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM).

The growth rate was 4.3 percent in 2005, the best performance in decades.

"Global economic growth has been strong in 2005 and throughout the first months of 2006, with Asia and the United States continuing to be the engines of global growth," Grasser told a press conference, adding that the EU economy is also recovering.

Asian Development Bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda, who attended the talks in Vienna, said growth in the East Asian region outside Japan would hit 7.6 percent this year.

However, the ASEM ministers cautioned in a statement that some factors continued to pose serious threats toward the positive global outlook. These include volatile oil prices, a variety of imbalances, protectionism and a possible bird flu pandemic.

The ASEM ministers also hoped for success in the so-called Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations. The talks have hit a deadlock over liberalizing the agricultural market between developed and developing countries.

ASEM groups together the 25 member states of the EU and 13 Asian countries -- China, Japan, South Korea and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- plus the European Commission, the EU's executive body.

Source: Xinhua