The impact arising from the global financial crisis was exaggerated by the Western powers, a researcher from China said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Mao Risheng, research fellow of China's Institute of World Economy and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told Xinhua on the sideline of the Seventh East Asia Congress.

Mao said the United States remained a strong power, with its system and order left intact.

Meanwhile, Augustine H.H. Tan, Economics Professor of Singapore Management University, was of the view that the US would experience a declining growth.

Tan said that to deleverage to a more sustainable growth trend, real consumer spending would need to grow by just 1.3 percent a year in the US from 2009 to 2013.

Such five-year stretch was the weakest since the 1930s and it could be much slower if taxes rose faster or if productivity was stagnant, impeding real income growth, added Tan.

Tan said that for the US to grow at 2.5 percent, exports and investment would have to be the engines but this was unlikely the case, given the global economic malaise.

Themed "Positioning East Asia in the Post-Crisis World", the congress drew more than 140 experts including policy makers, scholars and corporate executives to discuss the regional community building in East Asia.