Premier Wen Jiabao says China will continue to expand investment in eurozone countries, but says Western economies saddled with crippling debt should cut deficits rather than rely solely on his country to ease the global crisis.
Wen spoke Wednesday at a global economic forum in China. In his keynote address, he called on governments to make effective fiscal and monetary decisions.
"The main developed economies should make responsible and effective financial and fiscal policies, and handle the debt problems properly," said Wen. "They should maintain investment security and keep the stability of the world markets, and help build and sustain the confidence of global investors."
In return, the premier said China will do its part to ease the global crisis by maintaining economic stability and boosting domestic consumption.
"China will try its best to maintain the balance of stable economic development, economic structure adjustment and inflation control. We will try to keep the prices stable to avoid the ups and downs in the economy, and try to achieve the economic goal set at the beginning of the year," he said.
China is the largest foreign creditor of the United States, and is offering new investments to help stabilize Europe.
With more than $3 trillion in foreign currency reserves, Beijing already has committed to investing in Greece, Spain and Portugal - western Europe's three most indebted economies.
The Swiss-based World Economic Forum has brought world leaders and top business executives to China every summer since 2007. This year's conference comes as weakening demand in the United States and Europe prompted the Asian Development Bank on Wednesday to lower its growth forecast for Asia to 7.5 percent from 7.8 percent.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
