KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 - The world economy should grow by four percent in 2004 with Asian economies among the bright spots, Horst Koehler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said on Wednesday. "Overall, the IMF expects global growth... to reach four percent in 2004," Koehler told a media luncheon in Malaysia. "While uncertainties remain, prospects for a recovery in the global economy really have improved," he added. "In the U.S., there are increasing signs of a pick-up with a significant economic stimulus still in the pipeline," said Koehler, who is due to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir later on Wednesday. He added that Europe showed no evidence of a turnaround though he noted business expectations there had improved.
Koehler said a tentative recovery appeared to have begun in Japan and he reported a general strengthening in emerging and developing countries. Asia was a bright spot in the global economy, with the continent's economies expected to post six percent growth this year and to strengthen further in 2004. Conditions in global financial markets were also supportive of a recovery, he added. For Malaysia, which rejected IMF medicine to make its own way out of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, Koehler expected economic growth to exceed five percent next year.//