Adoption of appropriate measures checks economic decline. - The adoption of vigorous recovery plans in East Asia and the Pacific region, along with decisive measures in developed economies to prevent financial meltdown, have checked the decline in activity and seen the regional economy rebound. According to World Bank projections, real GDP growth in developing East Asia is set to slow much more moderately than after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, to 6.7% (compared with 8% in 2008). Prospects continue to be strongly affected by the situation in China: without China, the recovery of the rest of the region would be less vigorous. The World Bank forecasts that developing East Asia, China excepted, will grow more slowly in 2009 than South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. (I.L./transl.rt)