'China, India will continue to grow at fast pace for a long time'

Sydney, Feb 18 (ANI): China and India would continue to grow at a fast pace for a long time, boosting demand for Australian raw materials.

Australia's Reserve Bank Assistant Governor of Economics Malcolm Edey said today that China and India had "long way to go" before they caught up to industrialised countries.

"China and India until the recent crisis were growing at extremely high rates. They have got plenty of scope to do that for a long time," The Australian quoted Edey, as saying.

Edey said demand for Australian resources would continue to grow "which is going to be very good for Australian incomes", and would help offset the impact of an aging population on economic growth.

"China and India and other parts of the developing world have a long way to go to catch up and as they catch up they are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the world and that's a very powerful influence in increasing global growth prospects," he said.

"I think that force will continue to operate in the long run, but we are seeing very severe short-term effects from the global financial crisis working against that at the moment."

China ranks as Australia's biggest trading partner, while India's importance has grown in recent years. India is now Australia's 11th biggest trading partner. (ANI)