The battered global economy faces a difficult year but will begin a recovery in 2010, the European Central Bank president said on Friday, as hopes that the crisis was past its worst buoyed a broad rally in stock markets.
"Confidence today relies equally upon the audacity of our immediate decisions and upon the soundness of our exit strategies," Jean-Claude Trichet said in a speech in Tokyo.
Mr Trichet said the ECB would decide next month on non-conventional ways to boost the economy.
In Washington, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn also predicted a recovery in 2010 after the global economy moved through "deeply negative territory" this year.
"Of course, the solutions differ by country, but there must be a coherent and coordinated response by the international community," Strauss-Kahn said. "Until this is done, attempts to restore demand are likely to falter."
Stocks rose across Asia and the Pacific on Friday after a strong rally in the United States the previous day, with the banking and technology sectors boosted by stronger-than-expected results from JPMorgan and Google.
Emerging equities are at six-month highs, with a growing number of analysts saying the worst of the crisis may be over. But many countries are struggling.
Danny Blanchflower, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, wrote in an article published on Friday that Britain faced a "jobs crisis".
"Unemployment is going to rise a lot during 2009," Mr Blanchflower said. "It is probably going to be the biggest issue at the next election."
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the country's economy "is expected to continue deteriorating for the time being".
But the Japanese government slightly upgraded its assessnment of consumer confidence after data showed confidence rose in March from a record low three months earlier.
US Federal Reserve officials gave mixed signals on Thursday, with the head of the Atlanta Fed forecasting a return to growth later this year, but the head of the San Francisco Fed warning of the potential for an even deeper contraction.
