20100109

WARSAW (Reuters) - Global economic recovery is faster and stronger than expected but there are still risks for its sustainability, the International Monetary Fund's head for Europe, Marek Belka, was quoted on Saturday as saying.

In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Belka said the economic recovery was mostly driven by state programmes and that its was not certain to continue after the aid is phased out.

"(Global) situation is better than a year ago. The recovery has happened sooner than we had expected and it is stronger, but...we owe it for now mostly to state aid," he said.

"The IMF is concerned whether the growth in demand caused by helping economy by a state proves durable," Belka also said.

He said problems would likely occur first in countries where households were excessively in debt, like Germany and France.

"We don't expect 2010 to be a year of crisis, but the recovery will be very slow," Belka added.