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Sales are rising at companies from Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co. to Gyeonggi, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. after governments worldwide injected more than $US2 trillion of stimulus since September 2008 and central banks slashed interest rates. Manufacturers are likely to keep assembly lines humming as they replenish depleted stockpiles, economists said.

``Most countries are pretty firmly in growth mode,'' said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. ``A lot of the gains in manufacturing are coming from the resumption of global trade, and production is playing catch-up with demand. Inventories are lining up well for further production gains.''

The Tempe, Arizona-based Institute for Supply Management said today its US manufacturing index fell to 53.6, lower than forecast, from October's three-year high of 55.7. Readings above 50 signal expansion.

China factory indexes

China's manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace since April 2004, according to a purchasing managers' index released earlier today by HSBC Holdings Plc. The index rose to a seasonally adjusted 55.7 from 55.4. The government's PMI, also published today, held at an 18-month high.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 1.2 per cent to 1,108.83 at 1:03 p.m. in New York and Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index jumped 2.7 per cent, the most since July. The dollar weakened against 14 of the 16 most-traded currencies, gold rose to a record and oil climbed more than 2 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 1.5 per cent.

``China's at the center of Asia's outperformance and that will continue to be the case, at least through the first half of 2010,'' said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. ``Without China's aggressive policy response to the crisis, the region wouldn't be where it is now.''

Australia's central bank cited the speed of Asia's rebound in today's unprecedented decision to raise interest rates for a third straight month. Norway and Israel have also tightened policy, while the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates close to zero until August to help bring down unemployment that has climbed to a 26-year high, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists early last month.

Further accommodation

``Globally, there's need for further accommodation if not necessarily more stimulus, with only a few exceptions,'' said JPMorgan's Feroli, a former Fed economist. ``Some of the measures will cool, and at some point, we need to see US demand pick up. It depends on hiring picking up and businesses starting to invest more.''

Australian central bank Governor Glenn Stevens said today that capital flows into Asia and other emerging markets have been picking up and the region's financial sectors are not ``impaired.''

China and India are the fastest-growing of the world's major economies. In China, gross domestic product will expand 10.5 per cent this quarter, helping the government to top its 8 per cent target for the year, according to the median estimate of 38 economists. The nation's growth fuels demand for Australian resources such as iron ore.

Growth forecast

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg at the beginning of November forecast the US economy would grow at a 3 per cent pace in the last three months of the year, following a 2.8 per cent pace in the third quarter.

A rebound in global growth and a 16 per cent drop in the dollar since March against a basket of six major trading partners are helping spur demand from abroad for US goods. Exports climbed 9.4 per cent in the five months through September, the biggest such gain since comparable records began in 1992, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

Growth in Asia is helping the rest of the world. Euro- region manufacturing expanded more than economists originally estimated in November and German unemployment unexpectedly dropped, separate reports showed today.

The world's recovery from the financial crisis is still uneven. Dubai shares tumbled and Abu Dhabi's stock index dropped the most in at least eight years on Nov. 29 after the government announced state-run Dubai World may delay debt payments.

Russian contraction

In Russia, a manufacturing contraction deepened last month after export demand sagged, raising concern that a recovery in the world's biggest energy exporter may be stalling, VTB Capital's Purchasing Managers' Index showed. An index of U.K. manufacturing fell to 51.8 in November from 53.7, Markit Economics said. Economists had predicted a reading of 54.

The pace of Chinese growth is also causing political tension as it refuses to bow to calls to allow the yuan to appreciate. Premier Wen Jiabao rebuffed yesterday calls by European leaders for China to let its currency strengthen, saying that a stable yuan helped global financial stability.

The nation has effectively pegged the yuan to the US currency since July last year to shield exporters from slumping global demand.

The stability of China's currency against the dollar contrasts with gains this year by the yen and the euro that have hurt exporters in Japan and the euro region. After an emergency meeting today, Japan's central bank said it would provide short- term loans to commercial banks, aiding an economy that is also grappling with deflation.

Rising yen

Eisuke Sakakibara, formerly Japan's top currency official, said today that the yen may rise beyond 80 per dollar by March, approaching its 1995 record, and any attempts to halt its advance through intervention will fail. In China, growth is stabilizing and becoming more sustainable, and government investment, which is driving the recovery, will gradually be reduced, Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the State Council Development and Research Center, said in the statement with the government's PMI.