But they cannot make up for the billions not being spent by shell-shocked American shoppers, experts say.

India's Trade Minister, Kamal Nath, projected domestic consumption in his country to grow by ''around 7percent'' this year.

Growth through ''domestic consumption has to be the only way'', he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, explaining that exporters were being held back by falling demand elsewhere.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said among early signs of recovery by the Chinese economy was a 20 per cent rise in domestic consumption at the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year, compared with the same period last year. ''The signs are small ones, but they give me hope,'' he said.

Bank of China vice-president Zhu Min forecast that Chinese domestic consumption would grow at about 20percent this year, the same pace as last year.

On the other hand, he noted that US consumer spending was set to plunge 10 per cent, or $US1 trillion ($A1.5 trillion), due to the financial crisis, as falling home values and a credit drought hit consumers.

Americans normally spent about $A15 trillion domestically a year, or about 70 per cent of the US gross domestic product, Mr Zhu said.

In comparison, Chinese spend just $A2.25 trillion on goods and service, about 38 per cent of GDP.

Export-driven economies such as China, Japan and Germany have been particularly hurt by the sharp fall in American consumption.

If US consumers spend $A1.5trillion less a year, even a boost in Chinese and Indian domestic consumption is unlikely to make up the gap.

However, experts said the ''pain'' was necessary.

University of California-Berkeley professor Ken Rosen slammed the American model of excessive borrowing to drive spending and thereby growth. ''The Japanese, German and Swiss model is a better model. The US model is wrong ... If the whole world went with the US model, the planet would not exist,'' he said.

Consumers in Japan, Germany and Switzerland set aside substantial savings, unlike their American counterparts.

A senior adviser to All Nippon Airways and a former Japanese vice-foreign minister, Hiromichi Toya, said that ''some structural change'' would be a good thing.

However, Mr Zhu warned that getting China's population to make a substantial change to their spending habits would take time.

''China is trying to increase consumption, but don't overly count on China to increase consumption to save the world,'' he said. AFP