London, July 26:

The International Monetary Fund said booms in China, India and Russia would allow the global economy to shrug off the impact of the crisis in the American housing market and post faster-than-expected growth this year.

Updating its spring forecast, the Washington-based fund said it expected the world economy to expand by 5.2 per cent in both 2007 and 2008, a 0.3 point increase in both years.

This will be a continuation of the strongest period of growth across the globe since the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In contrast to the western-dominated global economy of four decades ago, the fund said the two former communist countries of Russia and China, together with the world’s second most populous nation, India, would be responsible for driving up more than half of the 5.2 per cent of the global growth this year.