The revival of world trade and investment is important to prop up global economic recovery and growth, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) joint Development Committee said in a communique on Saturday.

Increasing importance of emerging economies

It pointed out that two years after the onset of the global financial crisis, actions by developed and developing countries, with strong support from multilateral financial institutions, have helped head off a catastrophic economic downturn.

"We urge members to avoid all forms of protectionist measures. Developing economies will play an increasing role in global growth and trade," said the communique.

"Economic resilience among many developing countries, reflecting sound policies in the years prior to the crisis, has underpinned the effectiveness of the global response, and is now contributing to the nascent global recovery," it added.

The rapid growth in major developing economies have injected confidence for the global recovery, however, "the external environment for developing countries is still precarious," Zhu Guangyao, vice minister of finance of China, said here on Saturday.

"Major developing economies including China have been recovering and growing rapidly, which reinforces the global confidence for recovery and generate strong momentum for the global economy," Zhu noted.

Many developing countries have done well in maintaining growth and output and preserving core spending on health, education and infrastructure. Protecting vulnerable groups has proved a bigger challenge -- especially in low-income countries -- partly because of fiscal constraints and difficulties in scaling up effective social protection mechanisms, said the committee.