The global economic recovery was under way in a two-speed growth manner, with headwinds such as inflationary pressure to deal with, World Bank Chief Economist Justin Yifu Lin said Friday.

The world economy expanded by 3.9 percent last year after declining by 2.2 percent in 2009, as some advanced economies were hit hard by the worst recession in decades, Lin, also World Bank Senior Vice President, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"The world economy is forecast to grow at a pace of 3.3 percent this year," Lin said, adding that developing countries will continue to spearhead the global economic growth.

The growth pace of emerging economies this year was predicted to reach 6 percent, outstripping a 2.4-percent growth of advanced economies, as some developed countries were still mired in a slack of production capacity and stubbornly high unemployment rates.

"This scenario will dampen some investors' enthusiasm for increasing new investment, and curb improvement of household consumption in those economies."

As the gross domestic product (GDP) of developed countries accounted for about 70 percent of the world's total, this would also affect the pace of global economic growth, Lin said.

He meanwhile noted that a combination of factors including dropping grain supply in some countries, oil price surge and speculation had contributed to the recent food price spike, and that this challenge must be properly dealt with.

The Washington-based agency predicted in January that the global economy growth would slow down to 3.3 percent this year and pick up steam to advance by 3.6 percent in 2012, while China's economy was to grow 8.7 percent this year and 8.4 percent in 2012.

Predicting that China is expected to sustain high-speed growth in the coming 20 or 30 years, Lin meanwhile pointed out that China needs to keep a close eye on challenges including the real estate bubble and income gap, and be alert to some economic uncertainties.

The renowned economist contended that China should continue with its economic restructuring efforts, give the private sector a bigger role to play, and help improve billions of farmer's income and livelihood.