CANBERRA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan welcomed news of strong economic growth in China, in the wake of trade concerns for Australia due to the global recession.

    Figures released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed China's economy grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter of 2009 in a startling turnaround fueled by a massive stimulus package.

    The Chinese growth rate was up from 6.1 percent in the first quarter, with the government's growth target for this year being 8 percent.

    "It's encouraging - certainly economic stimulus has had an impact in that country. Growth in China towards the end of last year was very very subdued," Swan told reporters.

    Swan said it was good to see some encouraging figures out but there was still some way to go to live with the fallout from the global recession.

    "This can be seen in terms of trade for Australia which will certainly be adversely affected, that will have an impact on our national income and that makes our employment outlook difficult and we've seen a decline in private investment," he said.

    "Those two factors alone mean that we still face a difficult outlook."

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis