GUANGZHOU, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's economic growth in the coming year should rely on expanding domestic demand instead of a recovery of the global economy, a senior economist said here Saturday.

    "The world's economy is recovering but it will need more time, so China should basically rely on increasing domestic demand and expanding home market to drive its economic growth," said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

    At the 4th China International Oils and Oilseeds Conference held in Guangzhou, provincial capital of South China's Guangdong, Yao said external demand for Chinese products was still weak though drop of China's exports had been decelerating over the last three quarters.

    The world's major economies, including the United States and the European Union, were seeing signs of recovery, but the recovering process would be slow and tortuous, he said.

    Yao said the 8-percent economic growth was no longer a problem for China this year, since the country's GDP had expanded 7.7 percent year on year in the first nine months, largely thanks to the massive stimulus package which was launched in November 2008.

    The stimulus packages to prop up growth had generated significant results and the fundamentals of the Chinese economy were good though there were still many difficulties, he said.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis