"The government has indicated that it is capable of unveiling more stimulus measures at any time in face of the still-evolving global financial crisis," Gong said, referring to Premier Wen's earlier claim that China has reserved "plenty of ammunition" to fight against the economic slowdown.

Predicting China could post an early rebound by the middle of this year, the World Bank warned that a full recovery depends on developments in the advanced economies.

More data in the coming months are needed to judge if the recent signs of recovery are for real, Louis Kuijs, senior economist with the World Bank, said. The bank earlier adjusted its projection for China's GDP growth this year to 6.5 percent.

Economists agreed that the major risk to China's overall growth lay on the external side and some insisted the country may undergo long term adjustment given the fact that its trade partners, such as the US, may take three to five years to ride out of the recession.

"If there is no recovery in the G3 economies, China will not be able to sustain its growth rebound through 2010," a Morgan Stanley research note on global economy said.

According to the General Administration of Customs, China's exports continued to fall in March, but in a milder magnitude of 17.1 percent compared with 25.7 percent in February.

US President Barack Obama said on last Friday that the US economy was beginning to show "glimmers of hope", as mortgage interest rates declined to historic lows, while refinancing has shown significant pick-up. But some analysts said the largest economy in the world and also China's major trade partner is far from bottoming out, given the severe stress of financial malaise and job losses.

Li Jianwei, senior economist with the Development Research Center affiliated to the State Council, said if the country's exports plunged by as much as 20 to 30 percent due to the weakening demand in the US and Europe, it could hardly achieve the targeted 8 percent growth without the help of further stimulus measures.

(chinadaily.com.cn April 13, 2009)