World 'better off' by next year

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Premier Wen Jiabao said confidence was necessary to boost the econom China's Premier Wen Jiabao has said he expects that China and the rest of the world will be better off by next year. He was speaking at a news conference in Beijing at the end of the annual session of China's National People's Congress - the country's parliament. It is the only time each year that the premier takes questions from reporters. In preliminary remarks, he said the nearly 3,000 NPC delegates had approved the government's plan to tackle the economic crisis. 'Difficult year' "Confidence is more important than gold or money," he told the news conference in Beijing. "First and foremost we need very strong confidence. Only when we have confidence can we have courage and strength, and only when we have courage and strength can we overcome difficulties. "I expect that next year both China and the world will be better off." Opening the NPC session nine days ago, Mr Wen said that this year would be the most difficult China has faced this century. We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried Wen Jiabao At Friday's news conference, he said the government's economic stimulus programme included 1.18tr yuan ($172bn) in central government spending on "public welfare, technological innovation, environmental protection and infrastructure projects". In November, the government announced a $585bn (£413bn) economic stimulus programme. Mr Wen said the authorities had contingency plans in case of greater difficulties. "We have prepared enough 'ammunition' and we can launch new economic stimulus policies at any time," he said. The government is targeting annual growth of 8% and wants to boost consumption and raise consumer demand. Correspondents say the Communist Party fears that if annual growth slips below 8%, there will be social instability. At Friday's news conference, the premier said the growth target would be difficult to achieve, but possible. The global economic downturn is hitting China's growth Mr Wen spoke two days after official figures revealed that Chinese exports plunged by more than a quarter in February from a year ago to $64.9bn (£47.3bn). Imports fell by 24.1% to $60.1bn, the figures showed. Mr Wen also said he was worried about the safety of the huge amount of China's foreign exchange reserves invested in US government bonds. "We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Mr Wen said. Nearly half of China's $2tn in currency reserves is invested in US treasury bills and other government-affiliated notes, the Associated Press news agency said. "We are extremely interested in developments in the US economy," Mr Wen said. "President Obama has introduced new measures to counter the international financial crisis and we do have expectations from those steps."