U.S. consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in February this year,the fifth consecutive monthly rally, a fresh sign of the ongoing economic recovery of the world’s largest economy, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced Thursday in a report.

The monthly consumer credit increase pace in February was quicker than a 2.2-percent rise in January. Total consumer borrowing rose from a revised 2,412 billion U.S. dollars in January to 2,419.6 billion dollars in February, according to the report.

However, revolving debt, which includes credit cards, continued the downward trend of the previous month and dropped to 794 billion dollars in February from 796.7 billion dollars in January.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the overall economic activity, was the major engine of the U.S. economic growth.

Before the worst economic recession in decades, U.S. consumer credit rose by 4.1 percent and 5.8 percent in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

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China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday that it will publish quarter-on-quarter GDP growth results starting in April, a common practice in developed countries, to better reflect economic changes.

The NBS will also release the month-on-month growth of industrial value-added, fixed-asset investment and retail sales.

China formerly published the macro-economic data on a yearly basis. The new move is a part of the statistical reform initiated in 2009.

“The new mechanism may more accurately reflect short-term economic changes to provide better information for macro-economic policy-making,” said Peng Zhilong, director of the Department of National Accounts of NBS.

He noted that a major challenge for the new mechanism is factoring in holidays which could distort the information.

The data will undergo several revisions after it is first published, which is a technical must, said Sheng Laiyun, director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of NBS.

The statistical changes under the new scheme are expected to be bigger than those based on the year-on-year number, which could be reflected in United States’s 2010 GDP data. The annualized data from the first quarter through the fourth quarter were 2.4 percent, 3.0 percent, 3.2 percent and 2.7 percent. The quarterly-based numbers were 3.7 percent, 1.7 percent, 2.6 percent and 2.8 percent.

NBS is scheduled to announce major economic data for April on April 15. It currently only publishes month-on-month data of consumer and producer prices. The General Administration of Customs releases seasonally-adjusted month-on-month trade figures.

NBS has come under increased criticism in recent years for its outdated statistical methods, most notably in calculating property prices as skyrocketing housing costs have become a major source of public complaint.

The statistical agency scrapped the national property price index in February, as it failed to reflect sharp price gaps among different localities and could lead to misunderstandings.

Also in February, NBS adjusted the composition of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket by reducing the weighing of food prices and increasing that of living costs.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday the global recovery is becoming stronger but soaring commodity prices and other concerns post rising downside risks to the world.

“The recovery is gaining strength,” said the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook report which kicked off the one-week-long programs of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings held here in Washington DC. “But downside risks have risen.”

The 187-member institution said that earlier fears of a double- dip recession, which the IMF did not share, have not materialized.

MULTISPEED RECOVERY TO CONTINUE

According to the report, global recovery can be summarized in three numbers: the world economy to grow at about 4.4 percent a year in 2011, but with advanced economies growing at only about 2. 4 percent while emerging and developing economies grow at a much higher 6.5 percent.

For 2012, the IMF expects that the global output will grow by 4. 5 percent.

In advanced economies, the growth rate will slightly increase to 2.6 percent in 2012. “The hand-off from public to private demand is advancing, reducing concerns that diminishing fiscal policy support might cause a ‘double-dip’ recession. Financial conditions continue to improve, although they remain unusually fragile.”

In the United States, the largest economy in the world, the housing market is still depressed, leading to anemic housing investment. The crisis itself has led to a dramatic deterioration in fiscal positions, forcing a shift to fiscal consolidation while not eliminating market worries about fiscal sustainability. And in many countries banks are struggling to achieve higher capital ratios in the face of increasing nonperforming loans. The problems of the European Union periphery, stemming from the combined interactions of low growth, fiscal woes, and financial pressures, are particularly acute. Reestablishing fiscal and financial sustainability in the face of low or negative growth and high interest rates is a substantial challenge.

In many emerging market and developing economies, demand remains robust, with output expected to grow by 6.5 percent in 2012, the same level as 2011.

The IMF said that “in emerging market economies, by contrast, the crisis left no lasting wounds. Their initial fiscal and financial positions were typically stronger, and the adverse effects of the crisis were more muted.”

DOWNSIDE RISKS

“Overall, with the recovery stronger on the one hand but oil supply growth lower on the other,” noted the IMF’s latest assessment of world economic prospects.

“New downside risks are building on account of commodity prices, notably for oil, and, relatedly, geopolitical uncertainty, as well as overheating and booming asset markets in emerging market economies.” said the IMF.

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said that there was no overwhelming threat to the global economy, but there were trouble spots that needed to be dealt with.

“The main worry was that in advanced economies, after an initial recovery driven by the inventory cycle and fiscal stimulus, growth would fizzle,” said Blanchard. “The inventory cycle is now largely over and fiscal stimulus has turned to fiscal consolidation, but private demand has, for the most part, taken the baton.”

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