Area Development
A government-run think tank in China says the country's economy will expand by 7 percent in the second quarter of 2009, according to the Associated Press (AP). AP cites a report in the state-run newspaper China Securities Journal in which the Beijing-based State Information Center says that robust investment backed by government stimulus spending is helping the Chinese economy rebound from the global financial crisis. The report says that China's economy grew 6.1 percent during the first quarter of the year, its slowest rate in more than 10 years. The State Information Center forecasts that Chinese exports will fall during the second quarter in spite of the overall growth, so banks are heeding orders from the government to spur domestic demand and issued more than 4.6 trillion yuan (US$673 billion) in new loans during the first quarter, 20 percent more than all of 2007.