CRI听力:Developing Countries Urged to Safeguard Growth

In its newly-released Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank acknowledged that the world economy remains fragile four years after the onset of the global financial crisis.

Here is World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

"What we see is the economic recovery remains fragile and uncertain, clouding the prospect for rapid improvement and a return to more robust economic growth. And the outlook is weak and in both high-income and developing country economies."

The World Bank estimates that global GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2012, 0.3 percent drop from its previous forecast last June. It projects the growth at 2.4 percent this year, before gradually strengthening to 3.1 percent in 2014.

The report attributes more than half of the global growth in 2012 to developing economies which achieved an estimated growth of 5.1 percent last year. The Bank says, strong domestic demand and growing South-South economic linkages have underpinned developing country resilience to the ongoing crisis. The Bank also projects the growth of developing economies at 5.5 percent this year before it rises to 5.7 percent in 2014.

However, the weakness in high-income countries is dampening developing-country growth.

World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim says, despite promising and sometimes even courageous measures taken in Europe, there are issues remain in the Euro zone. And the United States is trying to deal with its debt and fiscal crisis.

"The risks from this situation are substantial, especially for developing countries that have remained remarkably resilient thus far. But we can't wait for a return to growth in the high-income countries, so we have to continue to support developing countries in making investments in infrastructure, in health, in education. This will set the stage for the stronger growth that we know that they can achieve in the future."

The World Bank urges developing countries to ensure their fiscal and monetary policies robust and responsive to domestic conditions instead of trying to anticipate every fluctuation in developed countries.

Last year developing countries recorded among their slowest economic growth rates of the past decade, partly due to the Euro zone debt crisis. International capital flows to developing countries fell 30 percent in the second quarter of last year.

The World Bank also points out that the hope of a U-shaped recovery of the global economy is changing to a W-shape, meaning it will take longer time to recover.

For CRI, this is Xiaohong, reporting from Washington.