International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director for Asia Pacific Region Anoop Singh said on Thursday that Asia remains firmly in the lead of the global economic recovery and strong growth in the region is set to continue.

Briefed the journalists at IMF's representatives office in Indonesia, Anoop said that the expansion in Asia exceeded expectation in the first half of the year. It made the IMF revised up its 2010 growth forecast for the region to 8 percent, nearly 1 percentage point higher than its April forecast.Speaking in a session to convey IMF's latest Regional Economic Outlook (REO) for Asia Pacific region here, Anoop said that economies across the region are expanding strongly.

"We expect Asia to continue leading the global recovery in the near term. Our prediction currently, Asia as a whole would grow by 8 percent tgis year and moderating to around seven percent next year," Anoop told the journalists.

According to REO analysis results, China and India are leading the way with projected 2010 growth rates of 10.5 and 9.7 percent respectively.

Indonesia is expected to grow by 6 percent. In Japan, growth is now projected at 2.8 percent. In 2011, regional growth is expected to moderate to more sustainable pace of 6.8 percent.Strong economic growth is leading to new policy challenges. Inflationary pressures are continuing to build, while prices in property markets are growing at double-digit rates, according to the analysis results. With Asia set to remain an attractive destination for foreign investment given the sluggish recovery in the United States and Europe, capital inflows could add further to domestic price pressures in the period ahead.