G10 central bankers concluded Jan. 9 that "dynamic" growth in the world economy was set to continue in 2006 and may even gain pace, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said.
Trichet did not give any precise data. Earlier last year, the G10 had cited targets of about 4.0% growth for 2005.
The ECB chief and G10 chairman emphasized that the world economy had weathered a sharp rise in oil prices to record levels last year. "The global economy proved very resilient in the eyes of governors and particularly resilient to the sharp run up in energy prices," he said.
"World trade will continue to develop at a significant pace, perhaps also even accelerate slightly in 2006," he said.
Central banks were still trying to understand why nominal long-term interest rates remained low, Trichet admitted. So far they had concluded that market expectations of inflation were being dampened by confidence-boosting policies adopted by central banks.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
