Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Saturday that economic recovery partially relies on confidence.

"Part of the rebound, part of the recovery relies on confidence, and it's absolutely normal that governments all over the world will try to rebuild confidence in looking at the upper part of the range rather than the lower part," said Strauss-Kahn at a press conference, while replying to the question that why the British government has forecast a much better economic outlook than that of the IMF that depicts a comparatively bleak scenario.

This helps to rebuild confidence and helps for growth, he said.

"I do understand that most governments have a forecast which is better than ours, and I hope that finally they will be right," he added.

While asked to comment on the economic prospect of 2010, Strauss-Kahn said "it depends a lot on the effectiveness of the stimulus of 2009," adding that it is very difficult "to define what is the need, what will be the need for 2010 before having really an assessment on the results of what is done in 2009."

Strauss-Kahn admitted that the IMF has more "pessimistic forecasts than most governments."

The IMF on Wednesday forecast the global economy will contract a punishing 1.3 percent this year because the financial crisis is proving more entrenched than expected.

"The global economy is in a severe recession inflicted by a massive financial crisis and acute loss of confidence," the IMF said in its semi-annual World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.

The IMF warned the outlook was "exceptionally uncertain," with risks weighing on the downside, in its assessment that the world economy was sliding into "the deepest post-World War II recession by far."

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2009)