by Wang Zhenhua

    Rome, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Efforts to lift the global economy out of its worst recession since the early 1930s are expected to top the agenda of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in L'Aquila, Italy from Wednesday to Friday.

    The meeting is convened at a time of lingering impact of the world economic crisis, although the worst part of the recession may have been over.

    The seven major industrialized countries of the G8 have suffered serious economic downturns after a credit crunch in the United States, which quickly pulled the country into recession before enveloping all the world's nations.

    Some analysts said that the worst part of the economic crisis in the major industrialized countries may have been over and some "green shots" of recovery are emerging.

    An OECD (the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) forecast last month showed that the economy of OECD members will declined by 4.1 percent this year before a rise of 0.7 percent in 2010, better than the forecast it released last March, when it said that the overall OECD economy would plunge 4.3 percent in 2009 and rises only by a tiny 0.1 percent in the following year.

    More than half of the economists in London who had responded to a survey by The Financial Times in early June said they believed the British economy would begin to recover in June.

    However, it is still not so safe to predict that the global economic downturn has hit the bottom.

    Statistics showed the U.S. economy declined by 5.5 percent on an annual basis in the first three months of this year and the GDP of the euro countries was down by 2.5 percent in the first quarter comparing with the previous quarter, the worst it its history.

    The Japanese economy even plunged by an annual rate of 14.2 percent in the first three months this year, the worst since World War II.

    Meanwhile, huge rescue plans adopted by the major industrialized nations in the past several months have pushed their fiscal deficit to record highs and increased the risk of inflation.

    To deal with the worst economic recession in the past 70 years, the industrialized countries have tried everything at their disposal, including trimming the short term interest rates to historic lows. However, signs for an immediate recovery are still elusive.

    An urgent task for the G8 leaders at present is how to effectively end the economic recession and to ensure a stable and sustained development of the world economy.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis