A senior World Bank trade official said Monday that China is the major contributing factor to accelerated global economic growth, which is projected to grow by 4 percent this year, and the record high growth rate of developing economies as a group.

Uri Dadush, director of the bank's International Trade Department and Development Prospects Group, predicted that the growth rate of developing economies for this year will be higher than the average annual growth rates for both the 1980s and 1990s.

The rapid hike in the economic growth in the Untied States and Japan are also important contributing factors, he said.

The strong demand from China's rapid economic development and continuous domestic demand in the United States led to unexpected growth rate of 10.2 percent in the world trade, said the director.     

According to an outlook report on global economy and developing countries, China is projected to achieve an economic growth rate of 9.25 percent this year, while Russia's economic growth rate will be 8 percent, and India's 6 percent.

Growth in those big economies have helped developing countries achieve a projected 6.1 percent growth rate, a record high in the past three decades, according to the report.

The report owes China's good economic performance to the country's loose credit policies and the benefits China gained from its entry into the World Trade Organization.

China's rapid import growth, which is expected to exceed 30 percent this year, provides strong support to its neighboring East Asian economies, it argued.

The bank said in the report that China's economy will slow down to about 8 percent in 2005, and 7.1 percent in 2006 due to slower world economy and higher prices of oil and other primary commodities.

The economies of the Untied States and Japan will also slow down next year, and the world economy will grow by 3.2 percent annually in the coming two years, according to the report.