Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (Front, L) meets with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (R, Front) at an airport in Pattaya, Thailand, on April 11, 2009. [Photo: Xinhua]

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in an interview with Hong Kong and Macao reporters Saturday in the beach resort Pattaya in central Thailand, said that the Chinese economy showed signs of better than expected positive changes in the first quarter as a result of the economic stimulus package adopted by China.

Firstly, the domestic demand rose on a sustainable basis. Meanwhile, investment in fixed assets increased rapidly and consumer demand grew steadily and relatively rapidly. Although lower from the same period of last year, imports and exports grew on a month-on-month basis in the three-month period, Wen said.

This indicates that some sectors and enterprises in China are in a process of gradual recovery.

Secondly, industries above the designated size registered month-on-month growth, with a year-on-year increase of 3.8 percent in both January and February, and a year-on-year increase of 8.3 percent in March.

Thirdly, the purchase management index and the entrepreneur confidence index of the manufacturing industry both rose, indicating that the Chinese economy has begun to stabilize and recover in some fields, according to Wen.

And fourthly, the market confidence went up and the economy became more active over the first three months, with increases in both the stock market and housing market transaction volumes.

The positive performances in economic fields suggest that the policies adopted by the central government of China have been timely and correct, and have led to successes, the premier noted.

The premier was here to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) related summits. The Chinese premier went back home late Saturday ahead of schedule, after the Thai government postponed the summits because of domestic political unrest.

The premier said we should see that China's economy is still facing very serious hardships, which can be attributed to the shrink of external demand and a relatively sharp fall in exports. This has negatively impacted export enterprises, export-oriented industries and export-oriented zones, and has resulted in decreases in business profit making, declines in financial revenues and heavier pressure on employment, he said.

As the international financial crisis is deepening and spreading, we should never lose vigilance, Wen warned.