China's economy to grow at 8.2 per cent this year: ADB

BEIJING: China's economy would grow at 8.2 per cent this year, up from last year's 7.8 per cent, provided the US economy continued its recovery and EU Zone economies stabilised, the Asian Development Bank has forecast.

"The country's new leaders are focused on delivering sustainable, quality growth, which is a welcome change from the growth-at-all-costs approach of the past," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted ADB Chief Economist Changyong Rhee as saying.

"Domestic spending, in particular consumption, is the main driver of the recovery, and is a welcome shift from the reliance on the markets of advanced economies," he said.

The report, Asian Development Outlook, also predicted the GDP growth in developing Asia of 6.6 per cent in 2013 and 6.7 per cent in 2014, from a growth of 6.1 per cent in 2012.

The report projects stronger economic activity in developing Asia to spur renewed price pressures, with inflation seen moving up from 3.7 per cent in 2012 to 4 per cent in 2013 and 4.2 per cent in 2014.

The bank also suggested that Asia is moving along a dangerously unsustainable energy path that will result in environment disaster and a gaping divide in energy access between rich and poor unless the region dramatically changes course.

The report recommended a pan-Asian energy market to be established by 2030, including the setting up of ministerial level task force to study European experience.