SANTIAGO - China continues to have a strong economic growth in 2011 while the European countries, the United States and Japan face severe economic crisis, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Wednesday in a report.

In its report "Annual Balance of the Region's Economies," ECLAC said that compared with those countries in 2011, China's economic growth remains strong despite a slowdown caused by tighter monetary and credit control and restraint in investment stimuli.

ECLAC said that China's internal investment in 2010 accounted for almost half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

ECLAC also said the dynamism of the emerging Asian economies, including India, is not enough to counter the economic slowdown of the developed countries, and it put the global economic growth for 2011 at 2.8 percent.

The report said the economic growth for the United States stands at 1.7 percent for 2011 due to the problems in the real estate and financial sectors and the high unemployment rate.

In Europe, tensions are mounting on how to resolve the debt crisis in five countries, namely Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, and it seemed increasingly difficult for Europeans to reach a consensus on tackling the crisis.

Although Japan's economy has picked up during the last quarter of the year, it is still affected by the consequences of the earthquake in March, especially in the sector of electric energy generation, thus making it difficult to maintain the fragile recovery.

ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena earlier told Xinhua that in some way, China is aware that it has to strengthen its internal demand and make profound changes in its economic structure, and that is what China has been doing.

For South America and the whole Latin American region, China is still very important, especially for the exporters of soy, copper, meat, oil and other products, she said.